Former Bisauli MLA Kushagra Sagar quits BJP after 11 years, likely to join Samajwadi Party
Former BJP MLA Kushagra Sagar of Bisauli, Budaun, resigned from the party on 21 October citing lack of respect; reports say he may join the SP next week.
Kushagra Sagar, who represented the Bisauli reserved seat in Uttar Pradesh’s Budaun district as a BJP MLA from 2017 to 2022, resigned from the party’s primary membership and all organisational posts on Wednesday, 21 October. He had spent about 11 years in the BJP.
Sagar is widely expected to move to the Samajwadi Party (SP). Aaj Tak, citing sources, reported that he may formally join the SP on 27 or 28 October. Neither Sagar nor the SP had officially confirmed the move at the time of writing.
An emotional exit on Facebook
Sagar announced the decision in a lengthy Facebook post. According to News24 and Aaj Tak, he wrote that he had treated the organisation like a family and worked hard to strengthen it, but had not received the respect and sense of belonging he expected in return.
He stressed that his hurt was not about being denied a post but about a loss of respect and trust. He said that walking away was not easy, and he also thanked the party for the opportunities it had given him. Prime TV India reported that he framed the decision as a fresh start for his self-respect, and called the departure an emotional turning point in his political career.
The Bisauli equation
Local reports point to developments in Bisauli as the background to his unhappiness. Prime TV India said he was upset that the BJP was giving growing importance to his old rival there. Aaj Tak linked his displeasure to a meeting between the seat’s sitting SP MLA, Ashutosh Maurya, and BJP leaders, though Sagar did not cite this in his resignation.
Maurya, also known as Raju, defeated Sagar in the 2022 Assembly election by 1,834 votes, polling 1,10,569 votes to Sagar’s 1,08,735, according to Prime TV India. Sagar had won the seat in 2017 by a margin of 10,688 votes. The report added that Maurya’s wife and sister joined the BJP in April 2024, and that his cross-voting in a Rajya Sabha election had fuelled talk of him drifting towards the ruling party.
Sagar comes from a political family. His father, Yogendra Sagar, is a Dalit leader and a former MLA.
Another setback in Rohilkhand
The resignation comes shortly after former Aonla MP Dharmendra Kashyap left the BJP and joined the SP, News24 reported, describing the two exits as part of a wider setback for the ruling party in the Rohilkhand region.
Uttar Pradesh goes to the polls in 2027, and both the BJP and the SP are working to firm up their candidate lists and caste coalitions. Sagar’s exit, if followed by a formal switch, would hand the SP a former BJP legislator from a reserved seat in the region.
No official reaction from the BJP or the SP to Sagar’s resignation was available at the time of writing.
Sources
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