Lucknow: The elections last month for the post of administrative secretary of Delhi’s Constitution Club have brought out in the open the internal fissures within a section of the BJP. Senior party leaders and contestants Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Sanjeev Balyan openly targeted each other, turning what was a club election into a public spectacle of rivalry.
After the elections, which Rudy won by a 100 votes, Sanjeev Balyan alleged that votes of two MPs—Raja Ram and Vijendra Singh—were cast even before they arrived, raising doubts of rigging.
In conversation with ThePrint, Balyan further alleged that the final tally itself was manipulated. “After polling, it was declared that 629 votes were cast. But during counting, the figure suddenly went up to 669. In general elections, if four votes mismatch out of 1,200, it isn’t considered rigging. But here, with 30-40 staff on duty, how can 40 extra votes be miscounted? This is strange.”
The elections became a Rajput vs Jat affair, with supporters taking potshots at one another’s community. Rudy, who managed to retain the post, targeted Balyan in an interview, saying that Muzaffarnagar had nearly two lakh Rajput voters and warning that if they turned against him, it would deepen Balyan’s troubles following his Lok Sabha defeat.
In response, Balyan said it was Rudy who began the war of words, and he only spoke up to respond.
While speaking to ThePrint, Balyan said, “Rudy managed to win only because the Opposition backed him … I had accepted defeat and moved on, but Rudy’s side kept making statements. I have no personal differences with Rudy, but since he began giving interviews, I had to come forward to defend myself. My image was being maligned, and I do not want that.”
Also Read: BJP vs BJP battle in Constitution Club is a glimpse of widening fault lines—Mumbai to Lucknow
‘Oppn backed Rudy’
Balyan added that the Samajwadi Party had pledged support to him until the night before voting but later switched sides. According to him, “I met Akhilesh and requested him to remain neutral during the polls but one night before the polls, there was a message for opposition MPs to get united on one side. That’s how the game changed.”
Balyan said that while Rudy’s video with Rahul Gandhi surfaced, he himself had never met the Congress leadership to seek their support. He admitted to requesting backing from some Congress MPs, but not from the party’s high command. Clarifying his stand, Balyan added that he had not contested the polls for lobbying, his intention was only to improve the management. However, Rudy’s lobby, he alleged, unnecessarily hyped up the elections.
He insisted that Amit Shah and Yogi Adityanath had nothing to do with the election and termed such narratives as false. He clarified that this was not a BJP organisational matter but an issue between him and Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Also, it was not personal, he added.
Rudy’s allegations
The controversy began after the polls, when Rudy targeted Balyan in a TV interview on 7 September. Rudy said he was accused of holding the post for 25 years and accumulating undue wealth during that period. Rejecting the charge as baseless, he said spreading such claims was unfair to him and an attempt to malign his political and social contributions.
The BJP MP further pointed out that the scale of resources deployed in the Constitution Club elections this time was unprecedented. He alleged that former MPs were brought in on chartered flights and accommodated in five-star hotels. Taking a swipe, Rudy said the elections had now become so expensive that anyone contesting them would have to spend crores of rupees. Hinting at BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who backed Balyan in the polls, Rudy said everyone knew who was behind these practices. He also taunted Balyan, remarking that one should not create a false narrative of casteism against an opponent.
In the high-stakes election of the Constitution Club of India which was held on 12 August, Rudy once again emerged victorious, defeating Balyan by around 100 votes.
In this contest, Balyan was seen as a candidate backed by the BJP high command, while Rudy drew support from opposition MPs as well as a section of BJP parliamentarians, particularly the party’s old guard.
The results exposed deep fissures within a section of the BJP.
Soon after the results, former BJP MLA Sangeet Som, who has in the past locked horns with Balyan, said, “I campaigned strongly against Balyan. He personally called at least 40–50 MPs. I wanted him to lose because he was turning this into a Rajput versus Jat battle.”
Som, a prominent Rajput leader from western UP, sharpened the divide further.
Speaking to ThePrint, Balyan refused to respond in detail to Som’s remarks. “Some people make such statements just to provoke me into reacting. I will not,” he said.
According to insiders in the UP BJP, the Constitution Club polls widened the rift between Rajput and Jat leaders, a development that could spell trouble for the party in the coming days, considering Rajput discontent had already surfaced during the Lok Sabha polls.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: Midnight spectacle in Lutyens’ Delhi as Rudy beats Balyan in BJP vs BJP battle in Constitution Club poll
