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Vijaya Pushkarna
Vijaya Pushkarna

RAJYA SABHA POLLS

RS nominations: Kejriwal assailed by dissident voices inside and outside AAP

PTI11_26_2017_000171B (File) With a clear majority in the Delhi state assembly, Kejriwal will have no problem in seeing his nominees elected

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal finds himself in the eye of a storm, not just from detractors outside the Aam Aadmi Party, but from insiders as well.

Kejriwal has sold the Rajya Sabha seats is the allegation in the case of two of the three RS nominees. The reason—his choice of chartered accountant N.D. Gupta and Delhi-based businessman Sushil Gupta as the party's nominees to the Rajya Sabha.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia claimed that Kejriwal had reached out to many big names, and said some even promised to be party nominees, but beat a hasty retreat at the eleventh hour.

This does suggest that big leaders in their fields do not want to be associated with the AAP. Sisodia believes this is because they are petrified of how the BJP and the Central government will treat them if they associate with the AAP.

The party had already nominated Sanjay Singh, who is a member of the Political Affairs Committee of AAP. Friday is the last day for filing nominations for elections slated for January 16.

The three seats will fall vacant as the terms of Karan Singh, Janardhan Dwivedi and Parvez Hashmi will end on January 27.

With a clear majority in the Delhi state assembly, Kejriwal will have no problem in seeing his nominees elected.

Ashutosh has reserved his comments.

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Kumar Vishwas, who has been given charge of Rajasthan where the party is hoping to contest assembly elections later this year, however, was expecting to get nominated to the upper house, and reacted eloquently before television cameras.

“For the last one-and-a-half years, in our party's PAC meetings, under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal, on many decisions—be it on the surgical strike or turning a blind eye to corruption within the party or being soft on terrorists in Punjab or the complaints with regard to the ticket distribution, the expectations and aspirations of the workers, or on issues pertaining to the soldiers or the JNU—I spoke the truth. I have been rewarded punishment for that today, and I thank myself for that. I believe, however, that as a poet, as a friend, as a true revolutionary, it is a moral victory.”

Vishwas, however, congratulated Kejriwal for choosing Sanjay Singh, who has worked tirelessly for the party. At his poetic and literary best Vishwas also congratulated the chief minister for the other two nominees, saying he was not familiar with their names.

He recalled that Kejriwal had once told him in the presence of 22 other party leaders that while he would kill him, he won't let Vishwas become a martyr. “I accept my martyrdom. But there is a small rule of warfare. You don't play around with the dead bodies of martyrs. I know nothing happens in our party without your wish. It is very difficult to live in the party while disagreeing with you, and I am still a member of the party. I request you to tell all your warriors, Twitter soldiers and members not to play around with the body.”

Vishwas thanked his supporters and well-wishers and left them with the thought that everyone has to fight his own battle, whether it is Lord Ram or Gautama Buddha. “Each one's battle is a lone one”, he said, suggesting somewhere along the line that he is still with the party.

The anger, though not officially articulated by party insiders, is because party seniors like former journalist Ashutosh and Vishwas are considered more capable of taking on the BJP and adding to the quality of debate in Parliament, than the two Guptas. Besides, there is a feeling that the entry of Sushil Gupta and N.D. Gupta to the Rajya Sabha on the AAP ticket will rob the party of its anti-corruption plank.

The 72-year old N.D. Gupta's claim to the nomination has been explained as the immense help he extended, without any fee, to the party in its fighting the many income tax cases slapped on it. A former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Gupta has been with the party from before it came to power in the capital, and has helped fend off the charges of illegal foreign funding for AAP.

But more anger has been generated by the nomination of 56-year old Sushil Gupta, who was a Congressman till he joined AAP a year ago. A big businessman, he contested the 2013 assembly elections on the Congress ticket and lost to the BJP.

Former AAP leader Yogendra Yadav, in a tweet, said he was “speechless, ashamed and numb” over the choice because he had thought whatever his faults may be, Kejriwal could not be bought”.

Prashant Bhushan, who was with Kejriwal from the India Against Corruption days, but is now no longer with him tweeted, “AAP giving Rajya Sabha tickets to people who have not distinguished themselves in public service and have no expertise on anything to qualify for the RS, by ignoring the voices of volunteers, is the final denouement of a party which started with such promise and is now totally degenerate”.

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