Who are Pratap Sarangi and Mukesh Rajput, BJP MPs ‘hospitalised’ after being ‘pushed’ by Rahul Gandhi

Pratap Chandra Sarangi

Sarangi, 69, is a two-time MP and a former Union Minister of State in the second NDA government. He came to the limelight in 2019 after images of him packing a simple bag at his modest thatched house before leaving for Delhi surfaced on X (then Twitter).

In Odisha, Sarangi is known as an austere political activist, maverick and plain spoken. A few years ago, in a television interview to OTV, a regional channel, Sarangi was asked if he was “abibahita” (unmarried) or “brahmacharya” (celibate). Sarangi promptly said “unmarried” and then “no” to the question on celibacy.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Sarangi defeated two bigwigs – sitting MP Rabindra Kumar Jena and Nabajyoti Patnaik, son of then state Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik – to win by over 12,000 votes while five years later, he defeated his former party colleague Lekhasree Samantasinghar, who had crossed over to the BJD, and former Union minister Srikant Jena to win by over 1 lakh votes.

In his 2024 election affidavit, Sarangi declared moveable assets of Rs 45.5 lakh and immovable assets of Rs 4.3 lakh. His sources of income are pension and agriculture and he has nine criminal cases against him.

In 1999, when Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two children were allegedly burnt to death in Keonjhar by activists of the Bajrang Dal, Sarangi was the state president of the organisation and deposed before the Wadhwa Commission as a witness in the case saying the main accused Dara Singh was not associated with the Bajrang Dal. Sarangi also served as a senior member of the state VHP unit.

In 2002, the Odisha Police arrested Sarangi on charges of rioting, arson, assault, and damaging government property after Hindu right-wing groups, including the Bajrang Dal, attacked the Orissa Assembly.

Before he became an MP, Sarangi was a two-time MLA. In 2004, he was elected as a BJP candidate and later as an Independent in 2009 from Nilagiri Vidhan Sabha constituency under the Balasore Lok Sabha seat.

Mukesh Rajput

A three-time MP from Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh, Rajput (55) is seen as among the more prominent Lodh leaders of the state, handpicked by former CM Kalyan Singh.

Seen as close to Singh, Rajput followed the former CM out of the BJP in 2009 and was appointed as the state vice-president of his Jan Kranti Party. He later twice served as the district panchayat president of Farrukhabad between 2000 and 2012.

Rajput emerged as a giant killer in 2014 after defeating sitting MP and former Union minister Salman Khurshid, who finished fourth. Five years later, Rajput defeated BSP candidate Manoj Agarwal and Khurshid, who this time finished second runner-up.

In the recent Lok Sabha polls, Rajput won again, but this time he defeated the SP’s Naval Kishore Shakya by only a wafer-thin margin of just over 2,000 votes.

According to his election affidavit, Rajput has no criminal case against him and has movable assets worth Rs 1.6 crore and immovable assets worth Rs 7.8 crore.

In Parliament, he has served as a member of many committees like the Local Area Development Scheme and the Standing Committee on Agriculture.