New Delhi, March 21 (IANS): The Aam Aadmi Party has nominated five persons for Rajya Sabha from Punjab where it swept the assembly polls and has formed the government. The five Rajya Sabha MPs include two businessmen, one IIT professor and cricketer Harbhajan Singh.
While Ashok Mittal and Sanjeev Arora are businessmen, former cricketer is Harbhajan Singh. Apart from that, Delhi MLA Raghav Chadha and IIT professor Sandeep Pathak have also been nominated for the Rajya Sabha.
Ashok K. Mittal is the founder chancellor of the prestigious academic institution, Lovely Professional University (LPU). Hailing from a humble background, Mittal worked his way up to become an accomplished entrepreneur. As a way to serve the society and the state of Punjab, he founded LPU which is one of the largest universities in India today with students from over 50 countries.
Sanjeev Arora runs the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust that was established after his parents lost their lives to cancer. But main business is export house. Arora is also on the governing board of Dayanand Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana, and is also a member of the Apex Council of Punjab Cricket Association. He has been the Secretary of Sutlej Club, Ludhiana, a prime institution of Punjab that provided ample help to the Ludhiana District Administration by donating ambulances, PPE Kits, and other essentials.
Raghav Chadha was appointed as the youngest spokesperson of the party and has executed crucial party campaigns in Delhi & Punjab. Chaddha spearheaded the critical water reforms as Delhi Jal Board Vice-Chairman and is one of the architects of the party's resounding victory in Punjab. A graduate from the London School of Economics, Chaddha met Arvind Kejriwal in 2012, who urged him to get involved in the drafting of the Delhi Lokpal Bill as his first task. In the 2020 Delhi Legislative Assembly Elections, Chadha registered an emphatic victory as the party's candidate from Rajinder Nagar Assembly Constituency.
Harbhajan Singh is India's most successful off-spin bowler who played for the Indian national cricket team between 1998 and 2016. Singh was captain of the Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians and captained Punjab for the 2012-13 Ranji Trophy season. Under his captaincy, Mumbai won the 2011 Champions League Twenty20. An Arjuna and Padma Shri awardee, Singh has been actively working for the upliftment of disadvantaged children through the Smile Train Foundation and Tera Tera Foundation.
Sandeep Pathak is touted as Aam Aadmi Party's Chanakya, responsible for the party's spectacular win in Punjab elections in 2022. Pathak is an IIT-Delhi Associate Professor who joined the party to realize Arvind Kejriwal's dream of a corruption-free India. Pathak received his PhD from the University Of Cambridge, UK in 2011. He has been working behind the scenes for many years and built the entire organization cadre in Punjab. He was the man behind conducting accurate and scientific surveys in the state, selection of candidates, and deciding the entire strategy for the party's resounding victory in Punjab.