We politicians have betrayed nation: Rajiv Pratap Rudy

PATNA: BJP nominee from Bihar’s Saran parliamentary constituency Rajiv Pratap Rudy said on Thursday, “We politicians have betrayed the nation. We don’t contest election on the basis of any candidate’s merit but purely on caste, religion lines.”
Talking to TOI over phone from Chapra after filing his nomination papers, Rudy (52) was categorical when he said, “If my caste men vote for me, I will win, otherwise I will not.”
He was concerned about the failing image of politicians.When asked how he would seek vote during campaigning, Rudy said, “I only ask them ‘if you think I am a better candidate than my rivals vote me’.”
Rudy is up against former CM Rabri Devi. The seat is a prestige issue for RJD supremo Lalu Prasad as he won from there in 2009.
Rudy said more than 60,000 population in Akilpur diara region have been without electricity since Independence. The region covers two parliamentary constituencies of Pataliputra and Saran. “We politicians have cheated the innocent voters during the last several decades. The administration has collapsed. Everybody pays only lip service. Nobody really means any business,” he said.
Rudy teaches Economics in A N College and is currently on lien.
He said most of the districts in Bihar are in the Maoist grip. Attacking both Lalu and Nitish, he said extortion has become a lucrative business.
Rudy was first elected as an MLA from his home constituency Taraiya in 1990 at the age of 28. After serving as the national vice-president of the BJP’s youth wing, he was elected to Parliament from Chhapra in 1996 and re-elected in 1999. He was made union minister of state for commerce and industry in 2001, and subsequently elevated as civil aviation minister with independent charge in Vajpayee government in 2003.
Rudy has been credited as the only parliamentarian qualified to fly Airbus-320 as a commercial pilot and is flying with IndiGo airlines as a first officer and also figures in the Limca Book of World records.