Sushil Gupta: AAP Candidate From Kurukshetra Constituency (image-twitter/DrSushilKrGupta)

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has announced its first list of candidates on Tuesday. The party has fielded Haryana state president and former Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Gupta as the party’s candidate from Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat.

The announcement was made during a press briefing by the party’s national general secretary Sandeep Pathak and Delhi ministers Gopal Rai and Atishi in New Delhi. Sushil Gupta served as a Rajya Sabha member for six years.

As part of the INDIA bloc deal, in Haryana, the Congress will contest nine out of 10 seats which are currently all held by BJP. The saffron’s party Nayab Saini currently represents the Kurukshetra seat in Parliament.

Gupta is a native of Jind. The AAP leader is an educationist and businessman, whose educational institutions serve 15,000 students across Delhi and Haryana. He owns Maharaja Agrasen Hospital and runs a medical college under the same name. Gupta has completed a bachelor”s degree in Commerce, and LLB and apart from this, also received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree (D.Litt).

In the previous election, Nayab Saini won the Kurukshetra seat by defeating Congress candidate Nirmal Singh. Saini won by receiving 6,88,629 votes whereas, Nirmal Singh was only able to get 3,04,038 votes.

Sushil Gupta was earlier a Congress member who later joined the Aam Aadmi Party. In the 2023 assembly elections, Gupta contested from Motinagar constituency as a Congress candidate. But he lost against AAP candidate Kuldeep Singh Channa.

Aam Aadmi Party and Congress will contest Lok Sabha elections as part of a deal in Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, and Goa. AAP has announced four candidates in Delhi and one in Haryana.