AAP names industrialist Rajinder Gupta as its candidate for Rajya Sabha bypoll in Punjab

The bypoll is being held to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of AAP’s Sanjeev Arora, who stepped down from the Upper House following his election to the state assembly.

Delhi: AAP on Sunday named prominent industrialist Rajinder Gupta as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha bypoll in Punjab, putting a final nail on speculation that party chief Arvind Kejriwal will be heading to Parliament via Upper House route.

The decision to nominate Gupta, the chairman emeritus of the Trident Group, was taken at a meeting of AAP's Political Affairs Committee headed by Kejriwal. The bypoll was necessitated by the vacancy created by  the resignation of AAP's Sanjeev Arora, who was elected an MLA to the Punjab Assembly.

With AAP having 93 MLAs in the 117-member Assembly, Gupta's victory in the October 24 election is a foregone conclusion and it is to be  seen whether the Opposition parties will field any candidate. The nominations open on Monday.

Gupta, who will be the seventh AAP Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, will serve the remainder of Arora's tenure till 9 April, 2028. Kejriwal and AAP had vehemently denied any plans to send the former Delhi Chief Minister to Rajya Sabha via Punjab but speculation had remained.

Altogether, AAP now has nine MPs six from Punjab and three from Delhi. Gupta will be the third industrialist or businessmen MP from AAP, the other two being Vikramjit Singh Sahney and Ashok Mittal.

The other MPs are Sanjay Singh, Sandeep Pathak, Swati Maliwal, Raghav Chadha, ND Gupta, Sant Balbir Singh and Harbhajan Singh.

Gupta, who was chosen for Padma Shri in 2007 when the UPA government was in power, had earlier held positions in the previous Congress and the Akali Dal-BJP governments in Punjab as well.

Founder of Ludhiana-based Trident Limited, which is the flagship company of  USD one billion Trident Group, Gupta is a first-generation entrepreneur. Trident Group is a diversified conglomerate involved in textiles, paper and chemicals with its manufacturing facilities in Punjab and Madhya Pradesh.

He had resigned as Chairman in 2022 citing health reasons and family issues.