A MONTH after elections to the prestigious Constitution Club in Delhi, the after effects are yet to die down. If the man at the heart of it, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, is feeling them too, he seems unruffled.
The 63-year-old recently took potshots at fellow BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who backed his rival Sanjeev Balyan, also of the BJP, in the election for the post of Secretary (Administration) at the Club. Rudy suggested that an “arrogant” Dubey acted on his own, out of over-confidence in his own abilities and desire “to control everything”, and that contrary to what was speculated, the BJP leadership was behind Rudy’s candidature.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Rudy laughs about his relationship with Dubey, which once used to be warm and cordial. BJP leaders talk about how Dubey, who comes from the corporate world and became an MP for the first time in 2009, used to be an admirer of Rudy and wanted to “emulate” him.
“I would have been happy if he had emulated me. It would have been really good. But unfortunately he does not,” Rudy says.
If Dubey picked Rudy out from among the BJP’s line-up of leaders in Delhi, it wasn’t a surprise. The suave Rudy, a trained pilot who still flies commercial aircraft, was once a regular at Page 3 parties in the Capital along with wife Neelam; the frequency has come down under the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah dispensation. His house in Delhi used to be a favourite hangout for young MPs.
The multi-term Bihar MP also has good ties cutting across party lines, which is one reason Opposition leaders came out in strength to vote for him in the Constitutional Club election, with Rudy getting 391 votes against Balyan’s 291.
The other reason was the Opposition seeking to make a point in an election that was seen as a proxy fight in the power struggle between two BJP stalwarts.
Rudy says there is no “truth at all” to such speculation. Accusing Dubey of “spreading canards” in the run-up to the Constitution Club election, Rudy says, “He was not asked to oppose me, nor did he have the blessings of anyone from the top leadership. He has chosen to do what he wanted to. There was no endorsement of his stand by the top leadership. Absolutely nothing. I am sure of it.”
The “overwhelming support” for him was an endorsement of his work in the development of the Constitution Club “as a brand”, Rudy says. “Leaders from every party, including seniors like Sonia Gandhi, came to vote. It sent a good message.”
Asked if the public fighting among BJP leaders was unusual for a party that swears by discipline among its cadres, Rudy reiterates: “It was not a BJP election, nor was it fought on party lines. The BJP had nothing to do with it. Its leadership had no role in it, and they were never involved in it.”
Rudy himself has been seen at odds with the BJP leadership since he was dropped as a Union Minister of State in 2017. Kept out of the Cabinet for the past eight years, he has often taken on own party leaders. In Parliament, the Saran MP has raised questions about Central government policies and made Zero Hour mentions of the same.
For example, during the Winter Session in December 2021, when then Union Rural and Panchayati Raj Minister Giriraj Kishore, also a Bihar MP, said jobs had been provided in the state, Rudy asked if that was the case, why were thousands still migrating to find work.
A senior BJP leader acknowledges Rudy’s role as an important voice in the party. “He has not been scared to take on giants in elections. Inside the House too, he does not hesitate to speak his mind when it comes to Bihar’s development issues. With friends across parties, he does not follow the usual style of BJP leaders,” the leader says.
However, he adds, “Rudy could not do much as a minister. I would not call him a performing minister. But, he is popular as an MP and works hard for his constituency.”
To criticism that he is “too elitist”, and hence does not align with the current BJP structure and thinking, Rudy says all the party’s leaders are connected to the grass-roots. “I first came to the Lok Sabha defeating Lalu Prasad (the RJD chief) from Chapra, a rural constituency of Bihar. The elite classification does not fit there.”
The constituency Rudy represents now, Saran, has a similar profile. And in 2024, Rudy won from here defeating RJD leader, former Bihar CM and Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi.
He is “a hardcore BJP MP”, contrary to the image attributed to him, says Rudy. “It’s a perception that I cannot change. I am hardcore BJP, I was one, I am one and I shall remain so.”
BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy recently took potshots at his party colleague Nishikant Dubey. 
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