Ravi Raja, 64, was a prominent Congress leader who was elected to the BMC continuously for five terms. Raja recently sent shock-waves by ending his 44-year association with the Congress and joining the BJP. He spoke to S Balakrishnan about his sudden political move and related issues.
Excerpts:
Q. It is said that you quit the Congress only because you were not given a ticket to contest the election. You wanted to contest from the Sion-Koliwada constituency.
A. The Congress did not consider merit. I was loyal to the party for 44 years and was the leader of the opposition in the BMC until recently. Even during Covid, I was taking up issues against Shiv Sena (UBT). In certain cases, contracts were given by the BMC to Sena (UBT) leaders. I took up these issues because I was concerned about the people of Mumbai. In 2019 also I had asked for a ticket from the Sion Koliwada seat. I was the leader of the opposition then. But it [the request] was denied because the party said the ticket should be given to Ganesh Yadav, the Youth Congress president. He lost miserably by over 14,000 votes. After losing, he was not seen in the constituency for four-and-a-half years. Only during the Lok Sabha elections, he started working in the area. [This time around] I again applied for the ticket. Maharashtra leaders recommended my name to the Central Election Committee, which decided that youth should again be given the ticket.
Q. Did you take up your case with AICC leaders?
A. I did meet the party president, Mallikarjun Kharge, who asked me to meet AICC general secretary KC Venugopal. For the past one-and-a-half months, I have been trying for an appointment with Venugopal secretaries. But I received no response. I also ‘WhatsApp-ed Mr Venugopal, but in vain. If a person of my seniority is treated like this, what about ordinary Congress workers? Venugopal had already made up his mind to give the ticket to a losing candidate like Yadav for obvious reasons. Merit was definitely not the consideration but other factors were. I put up my case to Ramesh Chennithala, the AICC general secretary in-charge of Maharashtra, who promised me support. But ultimately a defeated candidate was selected yet again.
Q. But what about Varsha Gaikwad, president of the Mumbai Congress? Did she not support you?
A. Varsha was busy lobbying for a ticket for her sister Jyoti from the Dharavi assembly seat. She was not bothered about the party at all. She did not fight for the party. Because of that, the party was allotted only 10 of the 36 seats by Maha Vikas Aghadi. In Kandivali, Charkop, and Colaba, complaints were received that tickets were given for consideration. Seats like Byculla, Versova, and Ghatkopar (East) were given away to Shiv Sena (UBT) for extraneous considerations. I see the doom of the Congress where seniority, merit, and loyalty are not considered.
Several months before the polls, many senior leaders of the Congress, like Bhai Jagtap, Naseem Khan, Chandrakant Handore, Charan Singh Sapra, Suresh Shetty, and myself, had called on Mr Kharge and urged him to remove Varsha Gaikwad as the city president because of her extremely controversial conduct and the interference by her husband in party affairs. Yet she was retained.
Q. What future do you see for the Congress in Mumbai, its birthplace?
A. The Congress is now controlled by a person like Rahul Gandhi who says India is not a nation, but only a union of states. He went to the US and claimed that Sikhs are not safe in India. The Sikhs continue to be a highly respected community in our country and to say that they are not safe is absurd. Also, India is a nation with a 5,000-year-old civilisation. It was a nation even before the Constitution was framed. How can Rahul Gandhi say India is not a nation? These statements disturbed me and that was one of the main reasons I decided to part ways. The Congress used to contest 32 seats in Mumbai and now it has come down to 10. That shows its steep decline. The leaders are to be blamed for what is happening to the party in Mumbai.
