I had to bid for power, Gujarat it is: Udit Raj

Raj, a revenue service officer and Income Tax Commissioner, also announced his intention to give up his government job and enter politics full time. ‘‘For the cause that we have taken up, I can do almost nothing as a government servant.’’

His organisation, which does not have a political nomenclature yet, plans to field 60-70 candidates in the forthcoming Gujarat polls; Raj is himself travelling to the state next week to inaugurate the election campaign. ‘‘I am aware that we may not win anything but we have to make a start somewhere,’’ he said.

The BSP, which has now become a force to reckon with in some northern states and which too began as an association of SC/ST government employees, had made a similarly quiet and humble electoral debut in the late 1980s.

In the first Assembly election the BSP contested, most of its candidates in UP and Madhya Pradesh lost their deposits. But in the following Assembly bypolls in 1987, the BSP opened its account in both states and took away enough votes to dent and defeat Congress candidates in a number of constituencies. The party hasn’t looked back since.

Raj, however, is loath to be compared with the BSP and said, ‘‘We have taken up a radical agenda that nobody before has. We are demanding reservations in the private sector, we are articulating opposition to globalisation and liberalization because, apart from the country at large, it is hurting Dalits most. We are the organisation that won back rights for reservation for employees after government orders had cancelled them.’’

His organisation is holding a rally in New Delhi on November 24 to oppose liberalisation, press for reservations in the private sector and flay the politics of the Sangh Parivar. Raj said those raising eyebrows on the need for another SC/ST party when the BSP is already espousing their cause are ‘‘wrongly motivated’’. ‘‘Would you ask the Congress or the BJP or other upper caste dominated parties what is the need for more than one such party?’’