AAP’s Gupta makes it to Rajya Sabha unopposed

Leading industrialist Rajinder Gupta was on Thursday elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket.

Punjab Vidhan Sabha Secretary-cum-Returning Officer Ram Lok Khatana handed over the certificate of election to him in the presence of Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan. Rajinder Gupta was accompanied by his wife Madhu Gupta. AAP now has seven MPs in the Rajya Sabha from Punjab.

The seat had fallen vacant after the resignation of Sanjeev Arora, another businessman, who was elected to the Punjab Assembly from Ludhiana (West) earlier this year. He is currently the state Industries Minister.

The Rajya Sabha bypoll was slated for October 24. Five candidates, including Gupta, had filed papers.

A controversy had erupted after a Rajasthan resident, Navneet Chaturvedi, filed his papers claiming support of 10 AAP legislators.

His papers were rejected as the MLAs, whose backing he had claimed to have got, denied it. Chaturvedi was arrested on Wednesday by the Ropar police for allegedly forging signatures of the MLAs.

The papers of two more candidates were rejected, leaving only Gupta’s wife Madhu in the race. Gupta was declared elected unopposed after she withdrew her papers.

Gupta is the second richest MP in the Rajya Sabha with assets worth Rs 5,053.03 crore. Dr Bandi Parthasaradhi Reddy of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is the richest member with assets worth Rs 5,300 crore.