Industrialist and Trident Group chairman Rajinder Gupta has resigned as vice-chairman of the Punjab Planning Board and chairman of the Shri Kali Mata Temple Management Committee, fuelling speculation that he could be the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) Rajya Sabha candidate for the byelection from Punjab, scheduled for October 24. Both resignations have been accepted.

AAP was looking for an industrialist for the berth vacated by Sanjeev Arora, who is now a minister in Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann ’s cabinet.

Arora had resigned from the seat on July 1 after he was elected from the Ludhiana (West) Assembly segment in June. The election was necessitated after the demise of AAP MLA Gurpreet Singh Gogi . Following this, the party nominated Arora for the seat, and he won with a margin of over

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