A day before the nomination process kicks off for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections scheduled for April 20, there is still no clarity on whether the Bharatiya Janata Party will clear Varun Gandhi’s name as its candidate from the Pilibhit constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
The BJP has set itself a target of winning all 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Riding high on the Ram Mandir ‘wave’, the party has struck several crucial alliances with smaller parties in a bid to achieve its goal. The party has struck alliances with Apna Dal (Sonelal), The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, the Nishad Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal.
The party has declared its candidates on 51 seats so far, but is playing its cards close to its chest as far as Pilibhit is concerned. BJP leader Varun Gandhi, the son of former Union minister Maneka Gandhi, is the incumbent MP from the constituency. Once seen as a formidable force within the BJP, the three-time MP entered the Lok Sabha first in 2009 from Pilibhit. He contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Sultanpur in UP and own. In 2019, he returned as the BJP’s candidate from Pilibhit and registered a victory.
The firebrand BJP leader, never known to mince his words, today finds himself in a precarious situation, with rumours going around that the BJP was condering to drop him from its list of candidates altogether. There is also news going around that he may contest the elections on a Samajwadi Party ticket. Pilibhit is among the 8 Lok Sabha seats in UP where polling is scheduled to take place in the first phase on April 20. The nominations are set to begin on March 20.
Varun Gandhi’s own doing may be responsible for his current predicament. In the latter half of his current term as MP, he has been a man on a mission to criticise his own government on multiple fronts. From the farmers’ agitation to the issue of unemployment, Varun has veered off the party line, even standing against it on some issues.
However, Varun changed tack as the elections drew closer, and appeared to be more accommodative of the party and its own leaders. At a recent event to mark the launch of the Amrit Bharat station scheme to redevlop 554 railway stations across the country — Pilibhit is one of them — was the first instance in months that Varun was seen along with BJP leaders on stage.
“No other human virtue is greater than the expression of gratitude,” he said at the event. Whether the BJP banks on Varun again or opts for a new face for the battle of Pilibhit will only be clear once the party reveals its candidate for the seat.
