AAP nominee Rajinder Gupta elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Punjab

Chandigarh, Oct 16 (PTI) Industrialist and AAP candidate Rajinder Gupta was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab on Thursday, the last day for withdrawing nominations, officials said.

Gupta, the lone candidate in the fray, has been elected unopposed, Ram Lok, returning officer-cum-secretary, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, said.

The Aam Aadmi Party, which nominated Gupta as its candidate for the October 24 Rajya Sabha bypoll, enjoys an overwhelming majority with 93 members in the 117-member state Assembly.

The seat fell vacant after AAP's Sanjeev Arora stepped down from the Upper House following his election to the state Assembly.

Arora, whose term was to end on April 9, 2028, is presently serving as a minister in the Punjab Cabinet led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

The chairman emeritus of the Trident Group, Gupta recently resigned as vice-chairman of the state economic policy and planning board, and as chairperson of the Kali Devi temple advisory committee, fuelling speculation that the AAP could field him for the Rajya Sabha bypoll.

Ludhiana-based Trident Group is a diversified conglomerate involved in textiles, paper and chemicals with manufacturing facilities in Punjab and Madhya Pradesh.

Founder of Trident Limited, the flagship company of Trident Group, Gupta is a first-generation entrepreneur. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2007 in recognition of his services in the field of trade and industry.

The nominations for the Rajya Sabha bypoll began on October 6 and the last date for filing nominations was October 13. The scrutiny of nominations took place on October 14, while the last date for withdrawal of candidature was October 16.

The candidature of Navneet Chaturvedi, hailing from Rajasthan, was rejected during scrutiny of nomination papers on Tuesday. Chaturvedi, who was arrested on Wednesday by Punjab Police, has been accused of filing his nomination with forged signatures of 10 AAP MLAs.

At present, AAP has six Rajya Sabha members from Punjab -- Balbir Singh Seechewal, Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Ashok Mittal and Vikramjit Singh Sahney. PTI CHS ARI