Chandigarh, Oct 5 (PTI) The ruling Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday announced prominent industrialist Rajinder Gupta as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha bypoll in Punjab, scheduled to be held on October 24.
The bypoll is being held to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of AAP's Sanjeev Arora, who 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 political affairs committee announces to nominate Rajinder Gupta as a candidate for election to the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) by the elected members of the legislative assembly of Punjab," said the party in a statement.
Gupta, the chairman emeritus of the Trident Group, recently resigned as the 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 bypoll.
In a post on X, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann congratulated Gupta on being declared as the AAP nominee.
AAP enjoys an overwhelming majority with 93 members in the 117-member state Assembly. With this majority, the AAP will face no hurdle in sending Gupta to the Rajya Sabha.
In June, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal put to rest speculation that he would enter the Rajya Sabha from Punjab.
Kejriwal's decision to not throw his hat into the ring came after Arora won the Ludhiana West Assembly bypoll.
After Arora's name was announced for the Ludhiana West bypoll, the opposition had claimed that Kejriwal would enter the Rajya Sabha in his place.
AAP retained the Ludhiana West seat with Arora defeating his nearest rival, Bharat Bhushan Ashu of the Congress, by 10,637 votes.
The bypoll was necessitated by the passing of sitting AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January.
Ludhiana-based Trident Group is a diversified conglomerate involved in textiles, paper and chemicals with its manufacturing facilities in Punjab and Madhya Pradesh.
Founder of Trident Limited, which is the flagship company of Trident Group, Gupta is a first-generation entrepreneur. He was awarded Padma Shri by the then President A P J Abdul Kalam in 2007 in recognition of his distinguished services in the field of trade and industry.
Gupta had earlier held positions in the previous Congress and the SAD-BJP governments as well.
As per the notification for the bypoll, nominations will begin on October 6, and the last date for filing nominations will be October 13. The scrutiny of nominations will take place on October 14, while the last date for the withdrawal of candidatures is October 16.
Polling will take place on October 24, and counting will take place on the same day.
At present, the AAP has six Rajya Sabha members from Punjab. They are Balbir Singh Seechewal, Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Ashok Mittal and Vikramjit Singh Sahney.