Terming the BJP ‘anti-Dalit’, disgruntled BJP MP from northwest Delhi Udit Raj joined the Congress today after being denied a ticket and slammed his former party, saying it wanted Dalit votes but not a leader from the community who spoke his mind.

“I am feeling cheated by the BJP. I have told Rahul Gandhi that I don’t want anything and will campaign in support of the party to defeat the BJP. I wanted to join the Congress earlier and Gandhi knew that. If the BJP had given me the ticket, I would have contested. But, with this decision, it is clear that the BJP is anti-Dalit,” he said.

Congress leader KC Venugopal called Raj “a dynamic and sincere face of Indian politics”. “We were in Parliament together. He fought against his own government on some of the issues pertaining to Dalits,” he said.Former Delhi CM and Congress northeast Delhi candidate Sheila Dikshit said she had known Raj for long and was not happy when he joined the BJP.

As the BJP finalised its outlay for seven important seats of Delhi, repeating five and dropping two of the sitting MPs, on the seat where it had anticipated trouble, it delayed the official announcement as much as it could.  Raj joins the long queue of turncoats this election season to switch sides. He had yesterday said: “I am not so hungry that I would have switched camps so soon. I am a disciplined soldier. But I feel the ticket was delayed so I may not join another party.”

As his twitter handle saw prefix ‘chowkidar’ disappear and then reappear later in the evening, many felt that the BJP had managed to broker peace. Another sitting MP Maheish Girri, who was dropped to favour cricketer Gautam Gambhir, continues to sport ‘chowkidar’ with his name.

Sources say the party had decided to not give a ticket to Raj and Girri long ago. Their “reports” were not good and in the case of Raj specifically, even the RSS was against his candidature.