Jayant Chaudhary Sends A Message By Abstaining From Constitution Club Polls

Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief and Union Minister of State Jayant Chaudhary chose to abstain from voting in the Constitution Club of India elections this week, a decision that has created ripples in the political circles. His absence, even as top leaders across the spectrum, including Amit Shah, Sonia Gandhi, JP Nadda, and Mallikarjun Kharge cast their ballots, is being read as a conscious political signal.

Mr Chaudhary, who is Minister of State for Education and Skills, heads a party with two Lok Sabha MPs and represents a key segment of the Jat community in western Uttar Pradesh. According to sources close to him, his decision not to vote was deliberate-an attempt to avoid being seen as exercising caste loyalties or personal bias. The contest, however, put him in a particularly delicate spot. The eventual winner, BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy, is a long-time friend, while Sanjeev Balyan, also from the BJP, hails from the same region of Western UP as Mr Chaudhary.

Both Mr Balyan and Mr Chaudhary are Jat leaders who have vied for political space in the region, often finding themselves in sharp competition.

The Constitution Club elections, normally a low-key affair, drew unusual attention this year. Mr Rudy, a seasoned parliamentarian and a fixture in the Club's leadership for over two decades, was challenged by Mr Balyan, a two-time MP and former Union minister. The contest became a proxy battle, with caste lines-Jat versus Rajput-and personal loyalties influencing voting beyond party boundaries. For Mr Chaudhary, any choice would have been read as an endorsement of either a friend or a community peer, hence he decided to step aside.

Out of 1,295 eligible members, a record 707 turned up to vote, underlining the intensity of the contest. Mr Rudy retained his position of Secretary (Administration) with a comfortable margin, securing 391 votes against Mr Balyan's 291, extending his 25-year dominance over the post. The high-profile nature of the fight turned it into more than a routine club election-it became a rare BJP vs BJP contest, with heavyweights from across the political spectrum weighing in, both symbolically and substantively, through their presence.

Mr Chaudhary's absence, however, became one of the defining takeaways.

Though his party's MPs exercised their choices-former MP Malook Nagar and another sitting MP Rajkumar Sangwan openly voted for Mr Balyan-Mr Chaudhary stayed away. Party insiders stressed that there was no whip and that the RLD leader's abstention was a carefully calibrated move. "Our leader wanted to send a message-that he would not be drawn into a caste-based contest, nor take sides when both contenders had personal equations with him," a source said.

The decision also reflects Mr Chaudhary's delicate political positioning. As a Jat leader who recently aligned with the BJP and joined the Modi government, he has been navigating between asserting his community credentials and consolidating his place within the ruling alliance. Abstaining from a contest that was shaped by Jat-Rajput polarisation and intra-community rivalries allows him to maintain that balance, while also signalling independence of judgment.