Loyalists make lateral entry into politics with Sonia and Rahul Gandhi's support

NEW DELHI: K Raju, Congress’ newest Dalit face and recently-appointed head of the party’s SC department, is the latest in a long list of loyalists to make a lateral entry into politics with the blessings of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul.

Just a month ago, when the 1981-batch IAS officer took voluntary retirement, few apart from his close confidants knew that the former additional secretary at the Gandhi-led NAC was about to join the party. But his proximity to the family became clear on his first day in office, when he spent the entire Tuesday holding a discussion with party scion Rahul. He will be heading a little-known department that has been without a chairman since Y Makwana quit the party in 2008.

Raju has followed in the footsteps of babus, heads of security, grassroots workers in the family boroughs of Amethi and Rae Bareli, and even a family cook, who have similarly been appointed to a post in the AICC or got lucky with tickets for assembly or parliamentary elections, or even been accommodated in a Raj Bhawan.

In 2007, the Congress fielded the little-known PC Karad in Himachal assembly polls, favouring him over the veteran leader and deputy Speaker Dharampal Thakur. Karad lost miserably, finishing third behind BJP’s Govind Ram and Thakur, who contested as an independent. Hand-picked by Sonia, he was the son of Padam Ram, who had served as a cook with the Gandhi family.

In the same poll, the party fielded Nand Lal, an ex-SPG commando who had guarded the family, ignoring the sitting six-time legislator Singhi Ram. Lal won the reserved Rampur seat. A similar success story is that of Congress MP from Bahraich — KK ‘Commando’ — who contested for the first time in the 2009 parliamentary polls and won.

Kishor, an NSG commando, was part of the team guarding ex-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for seven years. He worked in UP and even agreed to change his preferred constituency from Gorakhpur to Bahraich.

BV Wanchoo, a 1976-batch IPS officer and a familiar face at 10 Janpath, was rewarded last year when he was appointed governor of Goa. Wanchoo was heading the SPG till October 2011, when he retired. He was in charge of the security of Gandhi and her family. In June, KL Sharma — who has handled the family’s affairs in Rae Bareli and Amethi — was inducted into AICC as a secretary attached to general secretary CP Joshi.