“Hath se badlenge haalaat, udit se hoga uday” (Congress will improve circumstances, Udit will show the way) is how the party’s North West Delhi Lok Sabha candidate Udit Raj is wooing voters this election.

The 66-year-old Dalit leader is up against BJP’s Yogendra Chandolia in the national capital which will go to polls on May 25 in the penultimate phase of the seven-phase general election.

“I am seeking votes for the development and prosperity of my people. This election is crucial because it is the battle to safeguard our constitution and democracy. It is the battle to choose right over wrong,” he said in an interview to The Statesman.

So what is in the mind of an average voter of the national capital?

“Voters, especially our youth, need jobs, basic amenities, and good infrastructure. They are not thinking about religion or the Hindi-Muslim conflict that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants you to believe,” he shot back.

Raj was a Member of Parliament between 2014 and 2019 in Lok Sabha, representing North West Delhi as a member of BJP, but left the party after its first term. He was a civil servant and is currently the national chairman of the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organizations.

Asked about his roadmap for the constituency, he said, “The Congress has a detailed plan for north west Delhi. My priority will be the Bawana-Narela metro corridor. The railway overbridges sanctioned during my tenure will be completed if the party comes to power. Sewer and sanitation issues, and the absence of basic amenities in slums will be addressed.”

“During my tenure, I had installed 200 gyms and sanctioned 12 railway overbridges in 2018. But the BJP MP, who came after me, did not act on these projects,” he said.

What, according to the Congress, is the answer to unemployment and inflation in the country?

“Our party manifesto has clear-cut answers to all the problems plaguing our country. The ‘Nyay Patra’ talks about filling 30 lakh job vacancies in the government sector. We will provide Rs 1 lakh per annum to women of poor families, as well as Rs 1 lakh per annum to the educated unemployed,” he said.

“Rahul Gandhi’s proposal of a caste census and economic survey are all in this direction,” he said.

The Dalit activist also talked extensively about how members of his community and other backward classes have been denied their rights by successive regimes.

“The Narendra Modi government is hell-bent on diluting reservation. Dalits and members of other backward classes have been at the receiving end of mainstream society since time immemorial. Today, the Dalits cannot afford quality education, their employment is being taken away, but most importantly, they are being robbed of their dignity,” he said.

What do you have to say on the protests against him by his own party workers regarding his candidature? Many called him an “outsider”, while Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely recently resigned over the candidature of Raj and Kanhaiya Kumar.

“These are all theatrics by agitated local leaders who failed to get party tickets. What do you have to say on the BJP fielding Punjabi singer Hans Raj Hans from the constituency last time? No one raised a finger in that party. Unfortunately, there is indiscipline in the Congress which needs to be addressed,” he said.

Finally, what are his comments on the party’s tie-up with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)?

Raj said the opposition INDIA bloc is the answer to fascist forces of the NDA government.

“We need to understand that this tie-up is to save democracy. There cannot be a 100 per cent agreement on everything, but we need to put our best efforts to defeat the divisive elements of the BJP,” he added.