All five Aam Aadmi Party nominees for the Rajya Sabha polls have been elected unopposed from Punjab, officials said on Thursday.
The AAP had nominated former cricketer Harbhajan Singh, party leader Raghav Chadha, Lovely Professional University founder Ashok Mittal, IIT Delhi professor Sandeep Pathak and industrialist Sanjeev Arora for the March 31 elections.
Thursday was the last day for the withdrawal of candidature. All the five candidates have been elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha, said Returning Officer Surinder Pal.
No other political party had nominated any candidate from Punjab for the Rajya Sabha elections. The term of five Rajya Sabha members from Punjab - Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (SAD), Naresh Gujral (SAD), Partap Singh Bajwa (Congress), Shamsher Singh Dullo (Congress) and Shwait Malik (BJP) -- will expire on April 9.
Harbhajan Singh is a former spinner of the Indian cricket team. Hailing from Jalandhar, Singh also captained Mumbai Indians and Kings Xl Punjab in the IPL. Ashok Mittal is the founder of Phagwara-based Lovely Professional University (LPU), the first private university in the state and one of the largest in India.
Raghav Chadha, 33, is the AAP's co-incharge of Punjab affairs and considered by the party as one of the architects of its victory in the state Assembly polls. Sandeep Pathak, an associate professor at IIT Delhi, was also instrumental in strategising the AAP's victory in the state polls. He did his Ph.D from Cambridge University of UK.
Sanjeev Arora, a businessman from Ludhiana, runs the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust. He founded it after his parents lost their lives to cancer. The trust has treated more than 160 cancer patients free of cost.
Arora is also on the governing board of Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana and is also a member of the apex council of the Punjab Cricket Association.
