BENGALURU: Prithvi Reddy, the suave national spokesperson and AAP Karnataka convener, has strongly defended the nomination of Sushil Gupta and ND Gupta to the Rajya Sabha. Speaking to News18 immediately after AAP officially announced their names, Reddy, a close confidante of AAP chief Arvind Kerjriwal, said that the party did the best thing it could under present circumstances.
He said both the Guptas were from Delhi and AAP believes that Rajya Sabha members should be from the same state. He said “Both of them are from Delhi. One Gupta is an eminent Chartered Accountant and the other one is a well-known entrepreneur. What is wrong in sending them to Rajya Sabha from their own state? If you have a closer look at their biodata you will agree with me. Both are qualified to be in the house of elders”.
Backing Kejriwal fully he said “Arvind Kejriwal has taken the right decision. There were too many contenders. Not only from Delhi, but also from Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kerala, etc. There was a demand that at least one seat should go to South India. But we felt that strengthening AAP in Delhi is much more important at this juncture and decided to send the local leaders to upper house of the Parliament”.
He said Kejriwal was being unfairly targeted and he had offered the Rajya Sabha nominations to apolitical eminent people like former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, Nobel laureate Kailash Sathyarthi, Infosys founder N R Narayanamurthy and a few others. “All of them declined our offers. Then the party decided to offer the posts to local Delhiites who have done something special in their chosen field of interest. Sushil Gupta’s Congress background should not be a big thing. People from all parties have joined us. Once they believe in our ideology, they are ours”, Reddy said.
Talking about the dilemma before the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) he said “from the field of journalism, we had two eminent persons Ashutosh and Aashish Khaitan. If you choose one, the other one will be upset. We have too many eminent people in the top decision making body of AAP. Choosing the right candidates was a huge task. We had to go for the people like Guptas to avoid the rifts. It is not Kerjiwal’s personal decision. The PAC has taken it in the interest of the party”.
He said that including him there were many others who have also contributed in their own way for the growth of AAP. “Preeti Sharma Menon is in Mumbai, Gomes is in Goa, I am in Karnataka, Neelakanthan is in Kerala. But we don’t think that the party has been unfair to us. I fully support Arvind Kejriwal” he said.
He dismissed the allegations that Aam Aadmi Party has now become a Khaas Aadmi Party saying that in his party all are Aam Aadmis and there is no scope for special privileges to be accorded to a chosen few.
Interestingly, Prithvi Reddy added that these are his personal views and not of his party.
Ravi Krishna Reddy, a former Karnataka AAP leader and an anti-corruption activist has slammed Kejriwal for sending two moneybags to the Rajya Sabha. He said “Kejriwal has proved that he is no different from other political parties. Because of him people are losing faith in alternative politics. It is bad for the movement and society”.
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