AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: AAP's decision to field Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora as its candidate for the vacant Ludhiana (West) Assembly seat on Wednesday fuelled speculation about Arvind Kejriwal entering the Upper House of Parliament, but the party dismissed any such move by its chief who lost his seat in the Delhi elections.
The schedule for the bypolls to seat, which fell vacant after Gurpreet Bassi Gogi died of a gunshot injury after his licensed weapon accidentally discharged, is yet to be announced.
Congress and BJP leaders claimed that Arora's entry as a candidate in a Punjab bypoll was curious and felt he would be vacating his seat upon his victory to enable the AAP supremo to enter Rajya Sabha.
However, AAP sources said Kejriwal has no plans to go to Rajya Sabha and such claims were unsubstantiated.
Soon after Delhi Assembly results in which AAP lost to BJP and Kejriwal defeated in his New Delhi seat, there has been speculation that he may find space in the Upper House by making an AAP MP from Punjab resign. The argument was that it would give Kejriwal some space in the national opposition scene at a time he is out of Delhi Assembly.
Arora, a 61-year-old Ludhiana industrialist who also runs the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust, was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2022 and has tenure till 2028. “Humbled and grateful to the leadership AAP for reposing faith in me to contest the Ludhiana West bye-elections,” Arora posted on X.
Soon after the AAP announcement, rebel AAP MP Swati Maliwal posted on 'X', "for the chair, once a son of Delhi, then once upon a time, the son of Haryana and now the son of Punjab."
Union Minister and BJP leader Ravneet Singh Bittu claimed Kejriwal cannot live without power. "If Sanjeev Arora wins the MLA seat, he cannot hold both the posts of MP and MLA. If he loses, they will tell him that you lost the MLA seat, why should we give you the MP seat now, both heads and tails are Kejriwal's," he added.
Senior Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira claimed, “if Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora is nominated as AAP candidate for the Ludhiana West bypoll, I am sure Arvind Kejriwal will take his Rajya Sabha membership."
Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia also said, “...Now, he (Arora) will resign as MP and, in his place, Arvind Kejriwal or Manish Sisodia will be made a Rajya Sabha member. Once again, Punjab has been made to surrender before Delhi. Punjab is paying the price but Bhagwant Mann is unfazed… He is least bothered about Punjab and Punjabis.”
AAP Punjab spokesperson Neel Garg dubbed the claims of Kejriwal going to Rajya Sabha in place of Arora as rumours.
"The bypoll date has not been announced yet. The opposition parties have started spreading rumours. There is no truth in it. Who goes to the Rajya Sabha will be decided when the bypoll result comes. The best candidate will be sent to the Rajya Sabha," Garg told reporters in Chandigarh.
AAP has seven members in the Rajya Sabha from Punjab -- Sandeep Pathak, Raghav Chadha, former cricketer Harbhajan Singh, Ashok Mittal, environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal and industrialist Vikramjit Singh besides Arora.