During the recent assembly elections in Punjab, AAP surprised everyone by emerging as the victorious party with a whopping 92 of 117 seats. Tired of infighting among ruling Congress, people of the state voted for a new party that promised to represent an AAM AADMI. Interestingly, the Punjab administration spent INR 2 crore for the oath-taking ceremony of former comedian in Punjab.
Thus, it is quite evident that Aam Aadmi Party is no longer ‘Aam’ and believes in making money for its own welfare and not public’s welfare. The party, now, has found another money-making scheme and that is, to give tickets to wealthiest candidates for Rajya Sabha.
AAP’s rich nominees for polls to Rajya Sabha
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday declared that its nominees for polls to Rajya Sabha seats from Punjab are Delhi MLA Raghav Chadha, former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh, former IIT-Delhi Associate Professor Sandeep Pathak, Lovely Professional University founder and Chancellor Ashok Mittal, and Ludhiana-based businessman Sanjeev Arora.
After filing their nominations, they also met Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
Notably, Polls to 13 Rajya Sabha seats in six States, including five from Punjab, will be held on March 31. Polls to the remaining two seats will be held in July.
As of now, three seats each are with the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). The remaining one is with the BJP. The party stated, “While Mr. Arora also runs the ‘Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Care Charitable Trust’, Mr. Pathak has been working behind the scenes for AAP for many years and played a major role in building the party organisation in Punjab. He was the man behind deciding the entire strategy for AAP’s victory in Punjab.”
AAP’s ‘Khaas’ nominees
Ashok Mittal and Sanjeev Arora, both are businessmen and Harbhajan Singh, as you know, is a popular cricketer. Ashok, reportedly, is the founder chancellor of India’s one of the largest academic institution, Lovely Professional University (LPU). He is an accomplished entrepreneur.
Sanjeev Arora also runs several businesses. He runs the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust but his main business is export house. Moreover, he is also on the governing board of Dayanand Medical college and hospital.
Harbhajan Singh is India’s most successful off-spin bowler who played for the Indian national cricket team between 1998 and 2016. Singh was captain of the Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians and captained Punjab for the 2012-13 Ranji Trophy season.
Sandeep Pathak, touted as Aam Aadmi Party’s Chanakya, is an IIT-Delhi Associate Professor. Last but not the least, Raghav Chaddha is a graduate from the London School of Economics. He met Arvind Kejriwal in 2012 and got involved in the drafting of the Delhi Lokpal Bill as his first task.
You see, Harbhajan Singh and two other businessmen are one of the richest nominees to file nominations for rajya sabha polls and it seemingly vindicates that AAP is planning to make more money with the induction of these popular faces in Rajya Sabha.