Ramesh Bidhuri, no stranger to row: Tughlakabad strongman known for letting loose tongue, aggression

He belongs to a prominent family of Tughlakabad , which has been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for decades. His family is also said to have contributed significantly to the area’s development.

“Bidhuri’s family has been associated with the Sangh since the Emergency period. He belongs to a family which played a key role in laying the foundation of the RSS in South Delhi and expanding it there,” a senior BJP leader said.

“It depends on the perspective from which one looks at Bidhuri,” another BJP leader said. “For some, he is a leader who does not exercise any control either on his aggression or his tongue. For generations of his family’s supporters in Tughlakabad, he is the person whose first successful project as an MP was ensuring the construction of a power sub-station, which brought uninterrupted electricity to the area for the first time.”

Besides ensuring the construction of a temple, park and school in his constituency, Bidhuri who, accompanied by his local musclemen, drives through the national capital in a cavalcade of SUVs, has “never disappointed” his party when asked to mobilise a crowd for it.

Although he is now said to have upset the BJP leadership by using foul language against Danish Ali during a debate on the Chandrayaan-3 in the Lok Sabha on Thursday night – during the concluding moments of the inaugural special session of the new Parliament – party sources said he had been a claimant for a berth in the Union Ministry till a few months ago.

“Senior BJP members, including some sitting Union ministers, had thrown their weight behind Bidhuri to get him inducted into the Union Ministry when there was a talk of a Cabinet expansion earlier this year,” a party source claimed.

When asked for his reaction to the row over his derogatory remarks against Ali, which have been expunged from the Lok Sabha records, Biduri told The Indian Express, “This is a matter that pertains to House proceedings; I have no comment to make.”

Associated with the RSS since his childhood, Bidhuri is known to be a regular visitor to its local shakha in his area. During his college days he was with the ABVP, the RSS’ students wing, getting elected in 1983 as a central councillor of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College as well as the Delhi University’s Executive Council.

Bidhuri did his BCom from this college following which he pursued an LLB from Ch. Charan Singh University in Meerut. Subsequently, he rose through the BJP ranks and got close to senior party leaders including Rajnath Singh, the current Defence Minister.

In the Delhi BJP, Bidhuri has held various positions, including the posts of general secretary and vice-president.

Bidhuri launched his electoral debut in the 1993 Delhi Assembly election by contesting from the Tughlakabad seat. “He contested on a BJP ticket for the first time in 1993 but lost; he was unsuccessful again in 1998 Delhi election. But, after being elected as an MLA from Tughlakabad in 2003, he won from this Assembly seat for two more times – in 2008 and 2013,” a party leader said.

“Given his successful track record as an MLA, then party president Rajnath Singh ji chose to field Bidhuri as the party’s candidate from the South Delhi parliamentary constituency for the first time in 2009. But Bidhuri was not successful then. He, however, contested from, and won, the seat in two consecutive elections since then,” the leader added.

The current row is not Bidhuri’s first brush with controversy. In 2015, five women MPs from the Congress, CPM, NCP and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had, in a complaint to then Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, accused Bidhuri of “abusive behaviour” and using “sexist, abusive and derogatory” language in the House.

During the campaigning for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, there was a confrontation between the supporters of Bidhuri and the AAP’s candidate from South Delhi, Raghav Chadha, when their paths crossed in the constituency.

A year later, Chadha got fresh ammunition against Bidhuri when a video of him using “derogatory” language against farmers protesting against the Centre’s now-repealed farm laws at Delhi’s borders had gone viral.