Aam Aadmi Party names five Rajya Sabha nominees from Punjab

New Delhi, March 21, 2022

The Aam Aadmi Party has named five nominees for the Rajya Sabha from Punjab where it swept the recent assembly polls and has formed the government.

The five nominees include two businessmen, Ashok Mittal and Sanjeev Arora, IIT Delhi Associate Professor Sandeep Pathak, former cricketer Harbhajan Singh, and Delhi MLA and AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha.

Mittal is the founder chancellor of the Lovely Professional University (LPU), one of the largest universities in India with students from more than 50 countries.

Arora runs the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust that was established after his parents lost their lives to cancer. But his main business is an export house. He is also on the governing board of Dayanand Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana, and is also a member of the Apex Council of Punjab Cricket Association. He has been the Secretary of Sutlej Club, Ludhiana, a prime institution of Punjab that provided ample help to the Ludhiana District Administration by donating ambulances, PPE Kits, and other essentials.

Chadha was appointed as the youngest spokesperson of the party and has executed crucial party campaigns in Delhi & Punjab. Chaddha spearheaded water reforms as Delhi Jal Board Vice-Chairman and is one of the architects of the party's resounding victory in Punjab. A graduate from the London School of Economics, Chaddha met AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal in 2012, who urged him to get involved in the drafting of the Delhi Lokpal Bill as his first task. In the 2020 Delhi Legislative Assembly Elections, Chadha registered an emphatic victory as the party's candidate from Rajinder Nagar Assembly Constituency.

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. Under his captaincy, Mumbai won the 2011 Champions League Twenty20. An Arjuna and Padma Shri awardee, Singh has been actively working for the upliftment of disadvantaged children through the Smile Train Foundation and Tera Tera Foundation.

Pathak is touted as Aam Aadmi Party's "Chanakya", responsible for the party's spectacular win in the recent Punjab assembly elections in 2022. Pathak received his PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK in 2011. He has been working behind the scenes for many years and helped build the party cadre and draw up its strategy in Punjab.

IANS