Stanford scholar behind AAP’s youth drive

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 31

Raghu Mahajan, the man behind AAP’s several campaigns on social media to build a support base in the state, is soon going to join a post-doctorate research project at the Princeton University. His strong academic record notwithstanding, his down-to-earth demeanour is unmissable.

He is managing AAP’s booth-level strategies in Majha’s Tarn Taran-Patti-Khem Karan-Khadoor Sahib belt. “My parents are from Dera Baba Nanak but I visited my home town for the first time only during this election campaign,” he says.

Raghu (28), who did a bachelor’s degree in Physics and Math from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a master’s degree from Cambridge University (UK) on Gates Cambridge Scholarship, is doing doctorate (Ph.D) in Stanford University in theoretical physics. He did his Class X from the St Stephen’s School in Chandigarh.

Raghu, who was born and brought up in Chandigarh and has never been to the rural Punjab, say, “Ours is a state blessed by God. We need to focus on human capital development. For that, we need high quality and well-equipped schools, colleges and universities, besides intellectual resources, which could be available if we focus on capacity building. As education is my passion, I would focus on this area if AAP forms the government in Punjab. Otherwise too, I want to be a teacher,” he adds.

”Not only me but others like Garry Birring, who did his MBA from the Oxford University, Roshan Shankar, who was in Stanford University, Gandharav, who was in a multinational company at Atlanta, Gagan Chadha, Vipul Puri, Dr Sarika Verma (an ENT specialist),Joban Randhawa, Amritpal Dhillon, Manjinder Sandhu, Sumesh Handa have a brilliant academic background. We are all working as a team for AAP,” says Raghu.

He was the brain behind the app “Chalo Punjab” for NRIs.