Ludhiana bizman Sanjeev Arora is AAP's choice for Rajya Sabha

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, March 21

A 58-year-old city-based businessman, Sanjeev Arora (Sunny), is one of the five AAP nominees for the Rajya Sabha elections. He has filed the nomination papers on Monday.

Arora is a businessman since 1986. He is the chairman-cum-managing director of Ritesh Properties and Industries Limited (RPIL) and a business partner in Hampton Homes. He had launched a brand ‘Femella’ for womenswear in 2008 under a firm ‘Femella Fashions Limited.

He is one of the trustees of the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Care Charitable Trust to help cancer patients. He formed the Trust in 2005 in the name of his parents who had died due to cancer. According to Arora, over 160 cancer patients have been treated free of cost through the Trust.

The then Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had honoured Arora with a state award during a state-level Independence Day function in 2018 for the services rendered by him and his organisation, Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Care Charitable Trust.

Arora is on the governing board of the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana. He is also a member of the Ved Mandir Trust, Daresi, Ludhiana.

AAP’s Ludhiana Lok Sabha constituency in-charge Amandeep Singh Mohie said Ludhiana was a industrial hub in the state. “As industrialist Sanjeev Arora from Ludhiana has filed a nomination from AAP for the Rajya Sabha elections, we hope that he would raise issues related to the local industry in the Rajya Sabha,” he said.

Meanwhile, Badish Jindal, president of the Federation of Punjab Small Industries Associations, said it would be good if an industrialist was sent to the Rajya Sabha. “We hope that voice of industrialists would be raised in the upper House of Parliament by the elected member,” he said.

Controversy over Arora’s firm

Ritesh Properties and Industries Limited (RPIL), whose managing director Sanjeev Arora is an AAP nominee for the Rajya Sabha, was linked with a controversy related to the auction of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust’s prime land at alleged throwaway prices last year. City based BJP leaders had then accused the Trust of auctioning the prime land of 16,344 sq yards at throwaway prices by ignoring market rates to the RPIL. BJP and other opposition leaders had alleged that there is a ‘multi-crore scam’ in the land auction. They had accused a former cabinet minister of the Congress government and LIT officials of allegedly benefitting the firm by auctioning the land at low rates as compared to the market rates. After the matter had reached before the Department of Local Government, the auction was cancelled amid the row. However, the then Congress minister and LIT Chairman had denied all the allegations levelled by the opposition parties. However, despite repeated attempts, Sanjeev Arora could not be contacted for comments. BJP leader Amarjit Singh Tikka alleged that the LIT’s prime land was auctioned at low rates to benefit the firm. It was a serious matter.

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