Udit Raj's 'lost opportunity': When friends advised him to quit BJP

In August 2018, Dalit leader Udit Raj was upset with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). When some of his friends reached out to him and suggested that he should quit the party for its “failure to stop atrocities on Dalits”, Raj indicated that he could, and ensure a couple more of the BJP’s Dalit MPs walk out of the party along with him.

Raj did not act on his promise, opting then to stay in the BJP. Last Wednesday, Raj joined the Congress but not before waiting for the BJP leadership to have change of heart of dropping him as its candidate, even beseeching it to field him again from Delhi’s Northwest Lok Sabha constituency.

Once a firebrand Dalit leader, Raj had an ignominious exit from the BJP on the evening of April 24. He had been a lifelong critic of the BJP, but joined the party barely a month-and-a-half before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and subsequently won from the Northwest constituency.

All that his website — uditraj.com — currently has is his photograph with Congress President Rahul Gandhi with the caption “Dr. Udit Raj joined the Congress” and that the website is under maintenance. Raj’s political somersault has obviously given little time to his website managers to change its content.

He is currently busy addressing election meetings in favour of Congress candidates across the country and facing criticism on social media for his political “opportunism”. “Even if I have to be an opportunist to serve my country, my Dalit brothers and sisters and freedom of choice, I accept and admit to it (being an opportunist),” Raj has said.

An old associate of Raj, who wished not to be named, believes the Dalit leader could have become a rallying force against the BJP if he had quit the party last year. “His heart is in the right place. He has a strident voice that he raises to fight for his people, but also has a love for pelf and power of the office. Raj would have been a political hero if he had quit then but lost a golden political opportunity,” the associate said.

According to sources, Raj was then negotiating on behalf of his party with upcoming Dalit leader and Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar, and even float a new independent party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to ally with the BJP.

According to his profile on the Lok Sabha website, Raj was born in Ramnagar village, Allahabad, on January 1, 1958. He studied at Hyderabad’s Osmania University and MMH College, Ghaziabad. He is a postgraduate and has a law degree. In 1988, Raj qualified for the Indian Revenue Service. He quit the Income Tax Department in 2003.

While in service, Raj organised Scheduled Caste government employees and headed the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations, the umbrella organisation of several Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes employees’ unions, since 1997. Raj climbed quickly to  leadership position in the organisation.

Until then, the organisation’s membership comprised mostly lower-level staff and Raj was one of the first from ‘Group A’ services. Raj led an agitation during the tenure of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, which brought him in the spotlight, spurring him to quit the service. After quitting the IRS, Raj founded the Indian Justice Party. Left organisations and Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind supported Raj politically in his initial years.

Subsequently, Raj unsuccessfully contested the 2004 Lok Sabha polls from UP’s Hardoi constituency, and the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from the Nagina seat. His brother Kalicharan is a former MP.

Raj hails from the Khatik community of Dalits. He has joined the Congress at a time when that party is trying to revive itself in UP, particularly its old Dalit base. However, Khatiks are a minuscule proportion of the Dalit population in UP, which predominantly comprises Jatavs and Pasis.

“The Congress needs a Jatav or a Pasi leader in UP, not a Khatik. It is unlikely that these communities would follow either Raj or P L Puniya,” a Dalit leader said.

Raj, as a parliamentarian, has an impressive record. According to PRS Legislative Research, Raj’s attendance in the 16th Lok Sabha was 98 per cent. He participated in 105 debates against the national average of 67.1 for all MPs, asked 350 questions against the national average of 293 questions and moved 25 private members’ Bill against the national average of 2.3.

It remains to be seen what role the Congress entrusts Raj in its preparation for the 2022 UP polls.