Denied ticket by BJP, Udit Raj joins Congress

New Delhi, April 24

Disgruntled BJP MP from Northwest Delhi Udit Raj joined the Congress on Wednesday, a day after being denied ticket by the saffron party.

Raj joined the Congress after meeting party president Rahul Gandhi here this morning. On Wednesday, Raj tweeted he would not have been “hurt” had the BJP told him earlier that he would not be given a ticket.

The BJP had replaced Raj from the Northwest Lok Sabha constituency with Punjabi Sufi singer Hans Raj Hans.

On Tuesday, he had said the BJP might have decided to drop him for protesting against the apex court’s order that nullified the stringent provisions of the Dalit protection law.

The former BJP MP had often held views contrary to the party’s stand, especially during the Sabarimala issue and ‘Bharat Bandh’ called by Dalit organisations last year.

Earlier this month, he was at the centre of controversy after being caught in a sting done on several MPs, which purportedly showed lawmakers accepting use of black money for contesting polls.

BJP removes Udit from social media groups

Hours after the disgruntled MP joined the Congress, Delhi BJP’s social media and IT cell in-charge directed his team to remove Udit Raj from the party’s social media groups.

 “As you know now that Udit Raj has joined the Congress, so kindly remove his and associates mobile numbers from your groups and broadcast list so that our information is not shared with them,” a message sent by Neelkant Bakshi, co-incharge, social media and IT cell of the Delhi BJP, to his team members said. PTI