200 days of Modi govt: First-time BJP MP Udit Raj is the party's prominent Dalit face

When the BJP rolled out the red carpet to this Indian Revenue Service officer turned politician just a couple of months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, there was a good reason for the royalty-like treatment.

Raj is a prominent Dalit face, and his entry was expected to help the BJP gain popularity among voters belonging to scheduled castes. But there was another underlying factor for the BJP’s pre-poll move.

In the revenue service, Raj was senior to former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal whose Aam Aadmi Party became the main challenger to the BJP, at least in Delhi. The party wanted to project Raj against Kejriwal.


Raj says his background as an officer has been an asset in the last few months. “If someone comes to me with a grievance, I can decide in a fraction of a minute whether I can solve his problem or not. Had I been just another politician, I could not have done that. Also, in government, bureaucrats act faster on my proposals as they are aware I was one of them.”

Raj is hoping that one of the proposed 100 smart cities will be set up in the Palam-Narela belt that falls within his constituency of Delhi North-West.

“It can become a business hub. Many investors are willing to invest in the area. In the next five years, Palam-Narela area could be a brand new modern city,” he says.

Raj agrees his big challenge comes from the fact that many of his constituents are on the rural-urban cusp.

As an MP, he had to run around in the corridors of the urban development ministry to convince its brass that the metro rail line could not be allowed to pass through Siraspur (which falls in his constituency) without taking the agitating local population into confidence. “At the end of the day, I ensured that there are both an under-bridge and a foot over-bridge. Also, 50,000 people of the locality will be the beneficiaries of a metro station coming up there,” Raj claims.

Raj’s biggest challenge, however, comes from Badli, Rupali, Jain Nagar and Kirari — all unauthorised colonies that have mushroomed in his constituency over the years. “I have been working to regularise those colonies,” says Raj.