Sakshi Maharaj throws hat in ring for UP CM

With the BJP focusing on OBC votes in Uttar Pradesh, it is now BJP MP from Unnao Sakshi Maharaj, who has thrown his hat into the ring and is promoting his name as the chief ministerial candidate.

“There is nothing wrong if one aspires for a post. There are many leaders in the BJP who can be chief ministers and they include Smriti Irani, Yogi Adityanath, Mahesh Sharma, Dinesh Sharma, Varun Gandhi and myself,” he said on Monday.

According to the BJP MP, his suitability for the top post rests on the fact that he belongs to the Lodh community which comes in the OBC category and is spread across 11 Lok Sabha seats in areas such as Aligarh, Agra, Ferozabad, Bulandshahar and Farukkhabad. The Lodhs constitute about three per cent of the total population of Uttar Pradesh but have a huge concentration in this region.

Sakshi Maharaj’s supporters are more forthcoming when they say that he is, perhaps, the only leader in the party who combines his caste appeal with his Hindutva identity.

“The only other leader revered by his community as well as for his Hindutva leanings was Kalyan Singh but he is now out of active politics. Sakshi Maharaj is the tallest Lodh leader in UP and even outside it and is known as a Hindu hardliner too,” said Shikar Rajput, a small-time businessman in Farukkhabad.

Sakshi began his political career in the 1990s with the Bhartiya Janata Party and was elected to the Lok Sabha twice from Farukkhabad. He had a stint in the Samajwadi party and then returned to the BJP.

In the past two years, he has remained in the headlines with his controversial statements that include his opposition to Muslim reservation, terming madarasas as nursery for terrorism, asking Hindu women to produce four children and asking for death sentence for conversion.

Sakshi Maharaj, one an acolyte of Kalyan Singh, is known for his tainted past that includes murder and rape charges. He was also named as an accused in the murder of BJP leader Brahma Dutt Dwiwedi in 1997 but eventually got a clean chit in the case.

“Most of the cases against me are a result of local political rivalry and none of them have been proved against me”, he said. He also runs a large network of ashrams and schools across the state, and is extremely popular among his disciples.

With Sakshi Maharaj claiming to be a candidate for the chief minister’s post in UP, the issue has become even more complicated fort the BJP leadership which has already failed in reining in the MP and his vociferous statements.