At Congress event in Delhi, functionaries protest fielding of ‘outsiders’

A group of Congress workers gathered at the party’s Delhi unit office at the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg on Monday and protested against the candidature of Udit Raj, fielded from the North West Delhi seat, calling him a “turncoat” and an “outsider”. The protest was being held when Raj along with the two other Congress candidates — JP Agarwal fielded from Chandni Chowk and Kanhaiya Kumar contesting in North East Delhi — was addressing a press conference, which was being convened by Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, people aware of the matter said.
A few protesters also called Kanhaiya Kumar an outsider, they added.
Raj won the North West seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, and later joined the Congress after the BJP denied him a ticket in 2019 elections.
The protesters mostly belonged to the North West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. A group of agitators tried to barge into the hall where the press meet was being held, but were obstructed by party functionaries who locked the entry to the conference hall on the ground floor.
“Udit Raj is a turncoat. The local leaders who have been working for the party for years have been ignored and Raj has been fielded from the North West seat. We will not accept an outsider candidate. He did not work even when he was a BJP MP from the area,” said one of the protesters, Niraj (who identified himself only by his first name), a resident of Bawana.
Lovely said that Congress has finalised the candidates and it is the duty of every party leader to accept them. “Workers have the freedom to raise their voice in this party. There is a fight for tickets in Congress, implying that there is a wave in favour of Congress. But there is no place for indiscipline in the party. The protests are part of internal democracy in the party. After nominations for the elections are over, all party workers will start working for the party candidates’ victory,” said Lovely.
“How can people of sound mind call someone an outsider who has been the MP in the North West seat between 2014 and 2019. I have done a lot of work in the constituency as an MP. Even when I was not the MP, I continued to work for the people of the area. The party should take action against them,” said Raj.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said discontent among Delhi Congress leaders and workers is now in the open. “When Udit Raj was a BJP MP, our workers used to complain that he gave no time to them. Five years later when Raj is with Congress, the party workers are complaining that he doesn’t meet them,” said Kapoor.
HT reached out to the AAP, but did not get any response to request for comment.
Congress is contesting the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi in alliance with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Congress is contesting three seats and AAP has fielded candidates in four seats – New Delhi, East Delhi, West Delhi, and South Delhi.
All the seven seats of Delhi are scheduled to go to polls on May 25.