The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday nominated Delhi Commission for Women Chief Swati Maliwal for Rajya Sabha. Apart from Maliwal, who will be the newest Rajya Sabha lawmaker of AAP, ND Gupta and Sanjay Singh have been renominated. AAP’s decision comes as three seats are falling vacant by end of January. Gupta is AAP’s treasurer.
Meanwhile, a day before on Thursday, a Delhi court allowed AAP’s jailed leader Sanjay Singh to sign Rajya Sabha re-nomination documents from jail. Singh was arrested by the ED over his alleged involvement in the Delhi excise policy case. Singh is the AAP’s Uttar Pradesh in-charge. It is said that Kejriwal skipped the ED’s third summon as AAP was busy in finalising the nominations of three Rajya Sabha lawmakers.
Who is Swati Maliwal? A political journey
Maliwal, who studied engineering, was working at HCL when she decided to leave the corporate world for good. At 22, she quit her job at HCL and started working as a volunteer in villages across India. Back in 2011, she was among the youngest members of Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement. The 39-year-old also worked briefly as Greenpeace India campaigner. During her 2013 Greenpeace stint, she worked on food security for women and children. A year later in 2014, Maliwal worked as a consultant with Delhi lawmakers focusing on development. During this period, she also worked with several NGOs to raise awareness about the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Maliwal was appointed the chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women in 2015. Soon after assuming her role, Maliwal faced accusations from DCW’s ex-chief, Barkha Shukla, regarding irregularities in appointments made to the commission. The Anti-Corruption Branch conducted a probe in these allegations. After this, the ACB had also filed a chargesheet against Maliwal and three other DCW members.