Incumbent Rudy repulses challenge from fellow BJP member in high-voltage Constitution Club polls

New Delhi, Aug 13 (PTI) Rajiv Pratap Rudy maintained his over 25-year dominance in the Constitution Club of India management, prevailing over the fellow BJP leader Sanjeev Balyan in one of its most keenly contested elections that saw voting from heavyweights like Home Minister Amit Shah and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Rudy received 391 votes against Balyan's 291 for the key position of Secretary (Administration), and all members from his panel, barring one, were elected for the position of 11 executive members, said the officials handling the poll held on Tuesday.

Amid celebration by his supporters, the fifth-term Lok Sabha MP from Saran in Bihar highlighted the presence of members from different parties, including the BJP, Congress, Samajwadi Party and the TMC, among the new office-bearers.

"It's a beautiful victory for all the parliamentarians and all those who came to vote and endorse the relentless effort of the team for the last two decades... It's a beautiful experience," Rudy said.

With two seasoned politicians from the same party slugging it out, political battlelines were drawn along unusual lines. Members of the opposition INDIA bloc were seen to be rallying behind Rudy, while Balyan's campaign, spearheaded by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, drew more support from the ruling party members, a section of whom voted for the incumbent too.

The club's election, whose reverberations were hardly felt outside the club's precincts earlier and never considered much of a news story, launched social media trends and numerous stories as it was clear that leading figures from different political parties were unusually interested in shaping its outcome.

Rudy's personal connect, his Bihar roots and the ever-lurking caste angle played their part as well, more so as his rival, a former Union minister like him, was never seen to be invested much in the club's affairs before he decided to throw his hat in the ring.

Sobriquets like "Thakur vs Jat" or "BJP Vs BJP" were tossed around, even though the two candidates personally refrained from any controversial turn in their campaigns that is often associated with competitive electoral battle.

Dubey, however, hinted at the support Rudy drew from opposition parties and credited Balyan, a Jat leader from western Uttar Pradesh, for enhancing the club's prestige.

Balyan's strength ensured that Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge came to vote, he said, claiming that neither Gandhi nor any of the ministers of the then UPA government had turned up to poll when her party member Jai Prakash Agarwal had contested against Rudy in 2005 and 2010.

A club official, though, claimed that Rudy, till this poll, had never faced any electoral challenge since he was nominated to the position by the then Speaker G M C Balayogi in 1999.

The post and other management positions were opened to election in 2009, he said. The Speaker is the ex-officio president of the club, but the Secretary (Administration) plays a crucial role in its executive functioning.

Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghosh claimed on X that the candidate backed by Shah and BJP president J P Nadda, who also voted along with several other ministers such as Piyush Goyal and Kiren Rijiju besides a few governors, has lost.

Over 680 valid votes were cast out of the total electors of 1,295 current and former MPs, officials said, making it one of the highest turnouts for the election to the club's office-bearers.

Several Union ministers and governors, like Shiv Pratap Shukla of Himachal Pradesh, voted as contestants lobbied intensively to rally their supporters.

While Rudy had listed the addition of numerous facilities to the club and its modernisation under his tenure to seek another term, Balyan was rooting for a change, claiming that the club should focus on catering to MPs and former MPs and not "outsiders" like IAS and IPS officers.

Among those elected to the 11-member Executive Committee are Naresh Agarwal, Prasun Banerjee, Pradeep Gandhi, Naveen Jindal, Deepender Singh Hooda, N K Premachandran, Pradip Kumar Varma, Jasbir Singh Gill, Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo, Shrirang Appa Barne and Akshay Yadav. PTI KR SLB RT