Cong alleges deal over RS berth, BJP says Kejriwal ‘Tughlaqi ruler’
AAP’S NOMINEE SUSHIL GUPTA IS A FORMER CONGRESS MEMBER
NEW DELHI : The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections announced on Wednesday evoked sharp reactions from the opposition parties.
Both the Congress and the BJP mocked the AAP for choosing newcomers overs party veterans.
The AAP on Wednesday nominated its founder member Sanjay Singh, Sushil Gupta and Narain Dass Gupta as its nominees. Sushil Gupta is a Delhi-based businessman while Narain Dass is chartered accountant and do not belong to the AAP fold.
Delhi Congress president, Ajay Maken, took a swipe at Kejirwal for choosing his former party member for the coveted post. Sushil Gupta had quit Congress in November last year. He was also the Congress candidate for the Moti Nagar assembly segment in the 2013 Delhi polls, but he lost the seat.
Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said the announcement of the AAP’S Rajya Sabha candidates belied its anti-corruption plank based on which it had stormed to power in Delhi.
“Rajya Sabha is regarded as the upper and respected house of Parliament. Allegation of ‘deals’ against Kejriwal for nominations has not only maligned his image but also Parliament. Kejriwal has disregarded his own party leaders and shown arbitrariness. It has been established that he is not a democratic head of a political party but a Tughlaqi ruler,” said the BJP leader.
Maken said even after five years of its existence, the AAP had to look for candidates in other parties. “On November 28, Sushil Gupta came to me to tender his resignation. When I asked the reason he said that he had been promised a Rajya Sabha berth by the AAP,” he said.
Sushil headed the traders’ cell of the Congress in Delhi.
“Kejriwalji, you joined politics to bring change. But you have changed. You picked a leader from Congress and another from BJP,” Maken tweeted in Hindi.
The Congress leader claimed that Narain Dass, who was termed a ‘GST expert’ by Kejriwal, was the ‘biggest supporter’ of the tax reform measure implemented by the Narendra Modi government last year.