AAP releases RS list, Vishwas says left out for speaking truth

The Aam Aadmi Party nominated Sanjay Singh, Sushil Gupta and ND Gupta as its Rajya Sabha nominees on Wednesday, with disgruntled AAP leader Kumar Vishwas saying he has been “punished” for speaking the truth.

The decision was announced after a meeting of the political affairs committee (PAC), the party’s highest decision-making body, called by AAP’s national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

“After deliberations over eight names in the PAC, we have decided to nominate party leader Sanjay Singh, former president of ICAI, ND Gupta and social worker Sushil Gupta for Rajya Sabha,” said deputy CM and PAC member Manish Sisodia. He said eight of the nine PAC members who attended the meeting agreed on all three names while one member agreed on two.

Soon after the announcement, Vishwas, who was angling for an RS nomination, attacked Kejriwal. He said it was difficult to survive in the party if one disagreed with Kejriwal.

The elections for three Rajya Sabha members from Delhi are scheduled for January 16.

Sisodia said Sanjay Singh was nominated for his “grassroot” work as a leader in Uttar Pradesh, ND Gupta for his contributions in the field of economics and government policies and Sushil Gupta for his work in health and education, especially for sponsoring edition of 15,000 underprivileged children in Delhi and Haryana.

The nominations had led to rift within the AAP with one of the founders Kumar Vishwas expressing interest for nomination. “For the last one-and-a-half years, be it the PAC or Kejriwal’s decision on issues like surgical strike, taking a soft stand on terrorists, his silence on ticket distribution and JNU... whatever truth I spoke, I have been punished today,” Vishwas told the media after the announcement.

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