Sanjay Singh: AAP Rajya Sabha MP from Delhi, from Sultanpur activism to arrest and bail

Overview

Sanjay Singh (born 22 March 1972) is an Indian politician of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and a Rajya Sabha MP from Delhi since 2018, re-elected unopposed to a second term in January 2024. A founding-era AAP organiser and national spokesperson, he became the party’s parliamentary floor leader and an opposition-bloc negotiator before his October 2023 arrest in the Delhi excise-policy case and his release on Supreme Court bail in April 2024 (Hindustan Times; Business Standard).

This profile covers Sanjay Singh the Aam Aadmi Party politician — not any other person of the same name, such as an actor or businessman. Singh’s public career runs from street-level organising for miners and hawkers in the 1990s to the Rajya Sabha, where he combined a heavy parliamentary workload with repeated confrontations with the Chair. His arrest made him the third senior AAP leader jailed in 2023, after Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain (Hindustan Times).

From Sultanpur activism to the Aam Aadmi Party

Singh was born in 1972 in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, to parents who were government teachers, and completed a diploma in mining engineering from the Orissa School of Mining Engineering, Keonjhar, in 1993 (Hindustan Times). In 1994 he founded the Azad Samaj Seva Samiti in Lucknow and began working for miners and street hawkers, and he started the Sultanpur Samaj Sewa Sangathan, which organised blood-donation and health camps (Hindustan Times; Business Standard). He worked alongside socialist leader Raghu Thakur of the Democratic Socialist Party on hawkers’ rights, and his Azad Sewa Samiti later became part of the National Hawkers’ Association (Business Standard). Before joining the AAP he was affiliated with the Samajwadi Party until 2007 (Business Standard).

Singh joined Arvind Kejriwal’s Right to Information campaign in 2006 and took part in the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement of 2011, which later gave rise to the AAP (Hindustan Times). He has been with the AAP since its creation in November 2012 and sits on its apex decision-making body, the Political Affairs Committee (Business Standard; Hindustan Times). He led the party’s Punjab assembly-election unit in February 2017 and spearheaded its civic-body poll campaign in Uttar Pradesh the same year, before being elected to the Rajya Sabha from Delhi on 8 January 2018 (Hindustan Times; Business Standard).

Parliamentary record: questions, bills, and suspensions

Singh’s parliamentary footprint is unusually measurable for an opposition back-bencher. By October 2023 he had raised over 200 starred questions in Parliament and introduced three private member bills — a workload that helps explain why his arrest was treated inside the AAP as a leadership void, not just a legal setback (Hindustan Times). His committee work spanned the Standing Committee on Coal and Steel (February 2018–May 2019), the Standing Committee on Urban Development (from September 2019), the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (from October 2019), the Central Silk Board, and an ad-hoc Rajya Sabha committee on pornography on social media and its effect on children (from December 2019) (Business Standard). In 2020 he received the PGC Award from UNICEF India for his efforts on children’s issues (Business Standard).

The same period brought repeated suspensions. During the 2020 Monsoon session he opposed the farm bills, calling them “Black Laws” for farmers, and was suspended with seven other Rajya Sabha members for unruly behaviour — Business Standard reports he tore documents and allegedly heckled the Deputy Chairman, then held a peaceful protest outside the House (Business Standard). In August 2018 he had already been the AAP’s public voice in the Deputy Chairman election: with the party boycotting the vote, he publicly asked why Rahul Gandhi, who had embraced Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament, could not ask Kejriwal for support for the opposition’s candidate (Gulf News). On 24 July 2023 he was suspended again, for the remaining 14 sitting days of the Monsoon Session, after walking to the Chair during opposition protests demanding a statement from the Prime Minister on ethnic violence in Manipur; the motion, moved by Leader of the House Piyush Goyal, passed by voice vote, and INDIA floor leaders called the suspension disproportionate (The Hindu).

Role	Period
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (Delhi) — first term	January 2018 – January 2024
Member, Standing Committee on Coal and Steel	February 2018 – May 2019
Member, Standing Committee on Urban Development	September 2019 onwards
Member, Consultative Committee, Housing and Urban Affairs	October 2019 onwards
Member, Central Silk Board	December 2019 onwards
AAP floor leader, Rajya Sabha	By July 2023
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (Delhi) — second term	January 2024 – present

(The table distils Business Standard’s positions list, The Hindu’s identification of Singh as AAP floor leader in July 2023, and The Statesman’s report of his January 2024 re-election.)

The excise-policy case, arrest, and bail

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Singh on 4 October 2023 in connection with its money-laundering investigation into alleged irregularities in the implementation of the now-cancelled Delhi excise policy (Hindustan Times). Business Standard reports that the ED’s chargesheet alleged that businessman Dinesh Arora met Chief Minister Kejriwal in Singh’s presence and that Singh resolved Arora’s longstanding issue with the liquor department; these are allegations, not findings (Business Standard). Singh’s arrest came weeks after he was appointed to the INDIA opposition bloc’s campaign committee in September 2023, where he had been among the AAP’s three top representatives at bloc meetings alongside Kejriwal and MP Raghav Chadha (Hindustan Times).

While in custody, Singh was elected unopposed to a second Rajya Sabha term on 12 January 2024, alongside Swati Maliwal and N. D. Gupta; his first term was due to end on 27 January (The Statesman). On 2 April 2024 the Supreme Court granted him bail after the ED raised no objection, with a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Dipankar Datta and P. B. Varale permitting him to continue political activity while avoiding statements on the case; he walked out of Tihar Jail the next day (Business Standard). A Delhi court set conditions including surrendering his passport, notifying the court before leaving the National Capital Region, keeping his phone’s location services active, and not tampering with evidence or influencing witnesses (Business Standard).

Separately, in a much older case, a Sultanpur MP-MLA court convicted Singh and five others on 11 January 2023 and sentenced him to three months’ rigorous imprisonment plus a fine for obstructing traffic and inciting violence during a 2001 street protest in Sultanpur district; his appeal was dismissed by a sessions court on 6 August 2024 (NDTV). After the Allahabad High Court stayed execution of the sentence on 22 August 2024, Singh surrendered before the Sultanpur court on 28 August 2024 and was granted bail on a surety bond of Rs 50,000 (NDTV).

One measure of Singh’s public image is his declared wealth: Business Standard, citing myneta.info, reported declared assets of Rs 6.60 lakh and liabilities of Rs 38,000, placing him among the poorest Rajya Sabha members on that measure — a striking contrast with his prominence as a national party’s parliamentary face (Business Standard). That modest affidavit, plus a record of over 200 starred questions, frames his political brand: an activist-organiser who rose without a moneyed base.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Sanjay Singh? Sanjay Singh is an Aam Aadmi Party politician and Rajya Sabha MP from Delhi since 2018, re-elected to a second term in January 2024. A founding-era AAP organiser, he serves as national spokesperson, Political Affairs Committee member, and the party’s floor leader in the Rajya Sabha.

Why was Sanjay Singh arrested in 2023? The Enforcement Directorate arrested him on 4 October 2023 in a money-laundering probe into alleged irregularities in Delhi’s now-cancelled excise policy. The chargesheet alleged links to businessman Dinesh Arora; these remain allegations, and no court had reached a finding on guilt in the sources read.

Is Sanjay Singh still a Member of Parliament? Yes. While in custody he was elected unopposed to a second Rajya Sabha term on 12 January 2024, and he was released on Supreme Court bail on 3 April 2024 in the Delhi excise-policy case. His second term runs from January 2024.

Why was Sanjay Singh suspended from the Rajya Sabha in 2023? On 24 July 2023 the Chairman suspended him for the rest of the Monsoon Session after he walked to the Chair during opposition protests demanding a prime-ministerial statement on ethnic violence in Manipur. The motion passed by voice vote; INDIA floor leaders called it disproportionate.

What is Sanjay Singh’s role in the Aam Aadmi Party? He is a national spokesperson, a member of the apex Political Affairs Committee, the party’s Rajya Sabha floor leader, and state in-charge for Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan. He was also the AAP’s key representative in the INDIA opposition bloc’s coordination meetings.

Timeline

• 1972 — Born 22 March in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh (Hindustan Times; Business Standard).
• 1993 — Completes a diploma in mining engineering from the Orissa School of Mining Engineering, Keonjhar (Hindustan Times).
• 1994 — Founds the Azad Samaj Seva Samiti in Lucknow; starts the Sultanpur Samaj Sewa Sangathan (Hindustan Times; Business Standard).
• 2006 — Joins Kejriwal’s Right to Information campaign (Hindustan Times).
• 2011 — Takes part in the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement (Hindustan Times).
• 2012 — Becomes a founding member of the Aam Aadmi Party (Business Standard).
• 2017 — Leads AAP’s Punjab assembly-election unit; spearheads its Uttar Pradesh civic-poll campaign (Hindustan Times).
• 2018 — Elected to the Rajya Sabha from Delhi on 8 January; speaks for the AAP during its boycott of the August Deputy Chairman election (Business Standard; Gulf News).
• 2020 — Suspended with seven other Rajya Sabha members over farm-bill protests; receives the UNICEF India PGC Award (Business Standard).
• 2023 — Suspended for the remainder of the Monsoon Session on 24 July; arrested by the ED on 4 October (The Hindu; Hindustan Times).
• 2024 — Elected unopposed to a second Rajya Sabha term on 12 January; released from Tihar Jail on 3 April after the Supreme Court grants bail (The Statesman; Business Standard).

What this profile does not claim

• It does not assert guilt or innocence in the Delhi excise-policy case: the case was pending, the chargesheet allegations are reported as allegations, and the bail order made no finding on the merits.
• It does not assert the outcome of the defamation suit Business Standard says Reliance Defence filed over Singh’s Rafale-debate remarks; no source read in full confirmed a result.
• It does not claim Singh contested the 2017 Punjab Assembly election; only his Punjab organising role is asserted, per Hindustan Times.
• It does not cover Singh’s parliamentary activity after his April 2024 release, or later developments in the excise-policy case — both outside this research pass.
• It does not treat party or government sources as load-bearing; every substantive claim rests on the independent press sources listed below.

Sources

• Hindustan Times — Why this arrest hurts: What Sanjay Singh means to AAP (tier1; biography, party roles, parliamentary workload, arrest context)
• Business Standard — Sanjay Singh | Latest News on Sanjay Singh | Who is Sanjay Singh? (tier2; biography, committees, award, 2020 suspension, chargesheet allegations, declared assets)
• Gulf News — NDA’s Harivansh Narayan Singh elected as Rajya Sabha deputy chairman (tier2; 2018 Deputy Chairman vote and AAP boycott)
• Business Standard — AAP leader Sanjay Singh walks out of Tihar jail after nearly 6 months (tier2; Supreme Court bail, release, conditions)
• The Statesman — AAP leaders Swati Maliwal, Sanjay Singh, N D Gupta elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha (tier2; January 2024 re-election)
• The Hindu — AAP leader Sanjay Singh suspended for the entire Monsoon Session (tier1; July 2023 suspension)
• NDTV — AAP Leader Sanjay Singh Surrenders In UP Court In 2001 Case, Gets Bail (tier2; Sultanpur 2001 protest case, 2023 conviction, 2024 surrender and bail)