The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced on Monday that former cricketer Harbhajan Singh and Delhi MLA Raghav Chadha had been nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab, following a landslide victory in the Punjab Assembly elections.
Harbhajan Singh made his international debut in 1998 and played his final international match in 2016, however his formal retirement was declared in 2021. Chadha is an MLA from Rajinder Nagar in Delhi and the party’s co-incharge of Punjab.
Besides these two, Aam Aadmi Party has nominated Dr Sandeep Pathak to Rajya Sabha. He camped in Punjab for nearly three years and formed an organization at the booth level.
Aam Aadmi Party also nominated Chancellor of Lovely Professional University (LPU), Ashok Mittal to the Upper House. He is known for his work in the field of education – one category of the poll promises of AAP – and social services.
Aam Aadmi Party also nominated founder of Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Care Charitable Trust, Sanjiv Arora to Rajya Sabha.
The AAP won 92 of the 117-member House in the recent state Assembly elections.
The five Punjab vacancies arise when the terms of the following Rajya Sabha MPs come to an end on April 9. The deadline for submitting nominations is Monday. Partap Singh Bajwa and SS Dullo of the Congress, Shwait Malik of the BJP, Naresh Gujral of the SAD, and SS Dhindsa of the SAD-Sanyukt are the five Rajya Sabha MPs whose terms are coming to an end.
Punjab has seven seats in the Upper House in total. Balwinder Singh Bhunder of the SAD and Ambika Soni of the Congress, both Rajya Sabha MPs from Punjab, will have their terms expire on July 4. Elections for these two seats will take place later this year.
