The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday nominated Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal as its Rajya Sabha candidate and renominated sitting Rajya Sabha members Sanjay Singh and Narain Dass Gupta for a second term in the upper house of Parliament.
The six-year tenure of the party’s three Rajya Sabha MPs from Delhi — Mr. Singh, Sushil Kumar Gupta, and Mr. Narain Dass — ends on January 27. The election for these seats is scheduled for January 19. With AAP enjoying an overwhelming majority in the Assembly, where it has 62 out of 70 MLAs, all three nominees are set to be elected without any hiccups.
A court here allowed Mr. Singh, who is in jail in connection with the Delhi excise policy case, to sign papers for renomination.
On the issue of dropping Mr. Sushil’s name as a nominee, AAP, in a statement, said that he had “conveyed his aspiration to actively engage in the vibrant electoral landscape of Haryana”.
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that by renominating Mr. Singh, labelled as one of the ‘key conspirators’ by the Enforcement Directorate in the “liquor scam”, party chief Arvind Kejriwal had shown that he was “an equal partner in the corruption”.
Sources in the party described Ms. Maliwal as someone who had risen from the ground level and, given that she is an eloquent speaker, is likely to be an asset to the party in Parliament in Mr. Singh’s absence.
Another reason for her nomination, sources added, was that her term in the DCW was scheduled to end in July 2024, and the chances of the Central government-appointed Lieutenant-Governor creating hurdles in her reappointment “were very real”.
“The L-G has already created problems with the reappointments of Anurag Kundu as the DCPCR [Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights] chairperson and Jasmine Shah as the DDC [Dialogue and Development Commission] head. We were apprehensive of the possibility of the L-G creating an issue with the renewal of Swati’s term at the DCW,” an AAP leader said.
Party leaders said that Mr. Sushil could contest the Assembly election in Haryana later this year. “He has been active on the ground for the past many months. Arvind Kejriwal will also focus more on Haryana over the coming months,” the leader added.
Following her nomination, Ms. Maliwal resigned as the DCW chairperson.
‘Attempt to pacify’
The BJP spokesperson said that by deciding to send Ms. Maliwal to Rajya Sabha, the CM had tried to put an end “to the ongoing power struggle between two women leaders of his party”. He added that ever since senior party leader and Delhi Minister Atishi was handed more portfolios, Ms. Maliwal had been raising issues to embarrass her party colleague.
