Candidates elected unopposed, AAP makes its RS debut

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday made its debut at the Rajya Sabha after its candidates, Sanjay Singh, Sushil Gupta and N.D. Gupta, were elected unopposed from Delhi.

Chartered accountant and AAP accounts manager N.D. Gupta’s candidature was challenged by Congress, saying he held an office of profit. However, the complaint was quashed by Returning Officer Nidhi Srivastava. On Monday evening, the AAP candidates received the “certificate of election” confirming their election to the Upper House.

The election to the three Rajya Sabha seats from Delhi was necessitated as the tenure of the Congress members now holding the membership is set to expire later in January.

The nomination of the AAP candidates was marred by controversy after party leader Kumar Vishwas publicly expressed disappointment that he was not picked for a Rajya Sabha seat and opposed the nomination of businessman Sushil Gupta. There was universal acceptance of Sanjay Singh’s nomination and there was no major objection to N.D. Gupta’s candidature. Sources said that after N.D. Gupta’s candidature was approved, the two covering candidates of AAP withdrew their nomination, making the three the only ones in the race.

The Opposition parties did not nominate any candidate for the seat as AAP enjoys a brute majority in the 70-member Delhi Assembly.

On Saturday, the scrutiny of N.D. Gupta’s nomination was put on hold till Monday by Ms Srivastava after Congress’ complaints stating he held an office of profit.

The Congress first stated that he was appointed a trustee of the National Pension Scheme trust on March 30, 2015. Mr Gupta told the panel he resigned from the trust on December 29, 2017.

In a second complaint, the Congress said Mr Gupta had not resigned as chairman of the Audit Committee of the NPS trust. However, the Returning Officer said that Mr Gupta’s chairmanship of the Audit Committee was not a violation of the election code.

“It seems an internal arrangement of the trust had made for its working and not an independent office of chairman.