Harbhajan Singh, the former India off-spinner could follow the footsteps of his illustrious teammate, Sachin Tendulkar, as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha as he is likely to be Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) candidate for a seat in the Upper House.
AAP, after sweeping the polls in Punjab, formed the new government with Bhagwant Mann being sworn in as the Chief Minister on Wednesday. AAP would like to send an icon from the state to the Upper House of Parliament and one of the foremost names to have emerged is that of 41-year-old off-spinner.
Harbhajan Singh Likely To Be AAP’s Candidate For A Seat In Parliament Upper House
The off-spinner finished his career with 417 Test wickets, 269 ODI wickets, and 25 T20I wickets. He was also a part of two World Cup-winning campaigns for India- in T20 World Cup 2007 and ODI World Cup 2011. The off-spinner loved to perform against Australia as he picked 95 wickets in 18 Tests against Australia including 7 fifers.
“The top leadership of AAP, including the new CM has approached Harbhajan with an offer to become their nominated candidate for next Rajya Sabha term. The new CM wants Harbhajan to work towards lifting the standard of sports in the state, which has gone down considerably in past few years,” a source close to the cricketer said on Wednesday on conditions of anonymity.
Harbhajan Singh, who has taken over 700 wickets in an international career spanning over 18 years, recently retired from the active sport.
“Harbhajan always had interested in working for people and especially for the benefit and betterment of sportspersons. If an opportunity arises, he would love to take up the responsibility as he has always shared cordial relationship with Bhagwant Mann,” the source added.
The Aam Aadmi Party, who registered a resounding victory in Punjab Assembly Polls, is reportedly mulling to send former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh to Rajya Sabha. Though the development is not yet confirmed, sources have claimed that Harbhajan Singh is also keen to go to the upper house of the Parliament and the final decision will be made by Delhi CM and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal.
Harbhajan Singh Had Met Punjab Congress Chief Navjot Singh Sidhu After Retiring But Denied Any Inclination Of Joining Congress
Just before announcing his retirement, Harbhajan Singh had gone to meet his former teammate and recently resigned Punjab state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and the picture of the two on Twitter had led to speculations of him joining Congress.
However, back then in a conversation, he had categorically denied any inclination of joining the Congress party. Harbhajan Singh has been associated with many philanthropic projects and social work in Punjab.
A day after Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi sacked the party’s chiefs in the five states where it suffered humiliating losses, the party’s Punjab chief Navjot Singh Sidhu resigned from his post today. Navjot Singh Sidhu himself lost the Amritsar East seat to Jeevanjyot Kaur of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) by a margin of over 6,000 votes. While he polled 32,929 votes, Jeevanjyot Kaur received 39,520 votes.
AAP has won 92 seats of the total 117 in the Punjab Assembly, hence, it is certain that only AAP members will be elected to the Rajya Sabha on all the seats.