Sanjay Singh one of AAP’S RS nominees
NEW DELHI: Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and national spokesperson, Sanjay Singh, is set to be the party’s one of the three nominees for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls, sources said on Saturday.
The names of other two candidates will be decided in the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) — the highest decision-making body — which will meet when national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal returns from their holiday early next week.
AAP sources told Hindustan Times that Sanjay Singh’s name was confirmed by the top leadership and a formal announcement will be made after the PAC meeting.“the party has decided to send Sanjay Singh to Rajya Sabha. The search for two other names is going on,” said senior leader of the party.
The elections for electing three Rajya Sabha members from Delhi would be held on January 16 as terms of the incumbent members, Dr Karan Singh, Janardan Dwivedi and Parvez Hashmi — representing Congress party — would expire on January 27.The ruling AAP, which holds a majority (66) in the 70-member Delhi Assembly, is all set to win all the three seats.
Many party leaders, who did not want to be named, said the three candidates would be a mix of one insider and two outsiders.
Apart from Singh, senior leader Ashutosh’s name is also doing rounds within the party circles. As many as seven prominent personalities, including former RBI governor, Raghuram Rajan, former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, and former chief justice of India TS Thakur, have turned down AAP’S offer for the Upper House berth so far, sources said.
Born in Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh , Singh was one of the core committee members of team Anna during the India Against Corruption movement in 2012. He is also in charge for political affairs in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
He played a crucial role in Punjab where he was in charge of the party unit ahead of the 2017 assembly elections in the state. AAP could not form government in Punjab as the party came second, losing the contest to Congress. Singh resigned taking “moral responsibility” for the defeat. In Uttar Pradesh, where he managed the civic polls, the party won 42 of out 3,400 seats they contested.
The uncertainty in deciding names for Rajya Sabha led to internal rift in the party. A group of supporters of founder-member Kumar Vishwas barged into the party office at on Thursday demanding that Kumar be picked for the upper house.