Sakshi Maharaj: News

Sakshi Maharaj is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician and Lok Sabha Member of Parliament from Unnao, Uttar Pradesh. He is an OBC leader from the Lodh community and has his foundation running several ashrams and educational institutes in the country. Maharaj contested the Lok Sabha election for the first time in 1991 from Mathura constituency as a BJP candidate. He won the election and again contested in the 1996 and 1998 elections, winning on both occasions from Farrukhabad. He was a close associate of BJP leader and former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh. In 1999, Maharaj was one of the accused in the murder of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s aide, Brahm Dutt Dwivedi, and was, therefore, denied a Lok Sabha ticket by the BJP. He then left the party and campaigned for Samajwadi Party (SP) during the 1999 LS elections, in return for which he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. He was, however, expelled from the Rajya Sabha after getting caught on tape revealing the misuse of his MP Local Area Development Scheme funds. In 2012, he made a return to the BJP and won from Unnao in the 2014 and 2019 General Elections.