Saffron-clad MPs face drubbing, BJP’s Sakshi Maharaj lone winner

Animesh Singh

New Delhi, June 6

The saffron colour, associated with the BJP, will be less visible in the new Lok Sabha as of the five sitting saffron-clad BJP MPs in the outgoing 17th Lok Sabha, only Sakshi Maharaj managed to retain his seat from Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.

Among the other four, Sadhvi Niranjana Jyoti lost from Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh and Sumedhanand Saraswati from Sikar in Rajasthan.

Controversial seer and an accused in the Malegaon blast case Pragya Thakur was denied the ticket by the BJP owing to her controversial utterances against minority communities throughout her tenure as MP. Another MP from Solapur Mahaswami Jaisiddeshwar Shivacharya, a Lingayat seer from Maharashtra, too was not given the ticket. He had won his first Lok Sabha election in 2019 from Solapur, when he had defeated veteran Congress leader and former Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde. This time Shinde’s daughter Pranati Shinde has won from there.