In an interview with Sreenivasan Jain, senior BJP leader and Bihar MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy addresses the controversy over the Election Commission’s deletions of 65 lakh names from Bihar’s electoral rolls, which the opposition calls “vote chori.” He defended the Prime Minister’s claims of a surge of infiltrators into Bihar despite the government or the Election Commission producing no proof to bolster the claim. 

Reiterating the BJP’s “Bangladeshi infiltrators” claims, he says, “The country today is witnessing a huge immigration of individuals who call themselves from Bengal. But actually, their antecedents are not there. State governments individually, due to lack of labor supply, due to lack of certain issues, are admittedly allowing these people to settle.”

He backs the Election Commission’s exercise, saying that 25 lakh deleted voters were confirmed dead, while others had migrated or couldn’t be traced.

On Bihar’s development under NDA, Rudy claims: “My figures is close to about a crore people have got employment in Bihar. Whether it’s direct employment, government employment, self-employment, banking.” Rudy, however, could not cite evidence to back the assertion. 

In an explosive moment, he targets fellow BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, calling Dubey ‘arrogant’ and someone who wants to control Parliament single-handedly. Dubey had backed Rudy’s rival in recent elections to Delhi’s  Constitution Club.

“Out of 1,200 voters. 700 turn up in Delhi. And said... this is the greatest political achievement in my life. They said Rudy has done a great job… He [Dubey] has a problem, that he wants to run the show. Beyond government, he is a government. I am not a part of hhis government,” he says. 

Watch as Rudy talks about voter rolls, the NDA’s jobs promises, and Bihar’s development record.

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