New Delhi: Amid the raging controversy over induction of former Mayawati confidant Babu Singh Kushwaha, the BJP on Wednesday gave ticket to Sakshi Maharaj, a Lodh OBC leader of Uttar Pradesh who had earlier faced rape charges.
Sacchidanand Hari Sakshi Maharaj, who has been Lok Sabha MP from Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh three times, will be the BJP candidate from Bhongaon in Western UP.
The controversial leader had faced rape charges from two women in 2000 and had to spend a month in Tihar and Etah jails. He was exonerated in 2001 due to lack of evidence. He was then a Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha MP.
Maharaj is among the 77 candidates BJP declared for Uttar Pradesh for the forthcoming Assembly elections. The party also announced 12 candidates for Manipur and for the remaining three seats of Punjab. With this, BJP has declared a total of 301 candidates for the 403-member Assembly.
The BJP Central Election Committee chose Maharaj as one its candidates as he had emerged as a counter to rebel BJP leader Kalyan Singh at one time as both are from the same Lodh community.
The BJP appears to be targeting the OBC votes in UP after the government declared 4.5 per cent quota within quota for minorities from the OBC category. The party feels the antagonised non-Yadav OBC voters— whose share in the reservation pie will come down — will vote for the BJP as it has been critical of this decision.
Kushwaha, who is facing a CBI inquiry for his alleged involvement in the NRHM scam in which two CMOs were killed and a deputy CMO found dead in mysterious circumstances in jail, is also a OBC leader.
Maharaj has won the Lok Sabha elections from Farrukhabad in 1991, 1996 and 1998. When he was denied a ticket by the party in 2004, he contested as an Independent.
Though BJP has made it clear that Kushwaha will not be given a ticket and neither will figure among the party's star campaigners, his induction into the party has not been liked by senior party leaders LK Advani and his camp.
BJP President Nitin Gadkari, and leaders like Uma Bharti, Sanjay Joshi and Vinay Katiyar, decided to induct Kushwaha to improve the party's seat tally.
Bhadshah Singh, another Cabinet Minister ousted by Ms. Mayawati after he was served a notice by the UP Lokayukta for alleged financial irregularities, was given BJP membership yesterday. He has several criminal cases against him.
Prominent among the candidates declared by BJP on Wednesday for UP are Aligarh Mayor Ashutosh Varshney (Aligarh); former MPs Padamsen Choudhary (Matera), Chhatrapal Singh (Anupshahr) and Nawab Singh Nagar (Dadri); ex-Deputy mayor of Allahabad Anamika Choudhary (Karchhna); and former ministers Jaipal Singh Gurjar (Kithore) and Rajendra Singh Choudhan (Patiyali).
Mahesh Sharma, who had contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, will be the candidate from Noida.
Sitting MLA Ashok Kansal will contest from Muzaffarnagar while Udaybhan Karvariya, also an MLA, will be in the fray from Allahabad North.
Former MLAs who have managed to get the ticket this time include: Shashibala Pundir (Deoband), Samarpal Singh (Siwal Khas), Krishnavir Sirohi (Garmukhteshwar), Pranat Pal Singh (Mant), Ajay Pohiya (Baldev—SC), Narendra Singh Rathore (Mainpuri), Kashinath Kori (Kadipur—SC), Satyadev Pachouri (Govindnagar) and Santram Sanger (Madhaugarh).
Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu's wife Navjot Kaur will contest from Amritsar East in Punjab on a BJP ticket.
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