Varun Gandhi, reports suggested, will fight the election as an independent candidate from Amethi, with outside support from the Congress and Samajwadi party alliance. The two parties sealed the seat-sharing formula and Amethi and Rae Bareli are the two seats which the Congress got in deal.
Amethi was earlier held for 15 years by Varun’s cousin Rahul Gandhi, who was defeated by BJP leader and now Union Minister Smriti Irani in 2019. Rahul , however, won the second seat in Wayanad, in Kerala and is likely to seek re-election from there in 2024 polls too.
Residents of Amethi are now inclined towards Varun Gandhi, according to a report in news agency IANS said. This, the report said, comes since Rahul is not keen to contest Amethi, the seat that was once won by his father in 1980.
Dissenting Voices
Varun is unlikely to be fielded by BJP in 2024 for breaking ranks. The 43-year-old Pilibhit MP has for long been taking a critical stand on many issues against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the centre and Yogi Adityanath-led state government in Uttar Pradesh.
In December, Varun slammed the Uttar Pradesh government for allowing sale of alcohol at railway stations on the lines of liquor outlets at airports. Prior to that, in October 2023, he took on the Yogi Adityanath administration over suspending the licence of the Sanjay Gandhi hospital in Amethi. Later, the Allahabad High Court stayed the suspension, eliciting praise from the BJP leader.
In 2020-21, Varun was the only BJP leader who had come out in support of farmer protests. He also sought ‘accountability’ for the death of eight people, including four farmers, killed in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri after being run over by vehicles allegedly driven by Ashish Mishra, son of BJP leader and Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni.
Hours after speaking for Lakhimpur Kheri victims, Varun and his mother Maneka Gandhi, a BJP MP from Sultanpur in UP, were dropped from the party’s National Executive Committee. Around that time, speculation was rife that Varun Gandhi might as well join the Samajwadi Party (SP) ahead of UP assembly elections 2022. But, he chose, to wait to complete his five-year term as Lok Sabha MP, according to the sources.
Maneka and Varun joined the BJP in 2004. Varun contested his first election from Pilibhit in 2009. In 2013, he was made general secretary in the party.
In 2021, many had linked his stand to his exclusion from the Union cabinet expansion in July that year. Varun has been upset with BJP earlier as well. He was reportedly annoyed with his party for being ignored before the 2017 UP polls.
Recently, Varun was seen retweeting PM Modi on government’s decision to confer Bharat Ratna on former Prime Ministers Chaudhary Charan Singh and PV Narasimha Rao and architect of Green Revolution MS Swaminathan.
Hailing Indira Gandhi
In December BJP MP Varun Gandhi praised former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, saying that a “true leader” does not take “sole credit” for victory, as he referred to India’s win against Pakistan in the 1971 war.
In November, cousins Rahul and Varun met at Kedarnath Temple in Uttarakhand , again fuelling speculation about the BJP MP’s switch to the Congress party, months ahead of the 2024 general elections. Varun had said then that he was there on a private visit.
In January 2023, however, Rahul had dismissed speculation about Varun joining the Congress.
In 2004, Sonia Gandhi left Amethi for her son Rahul and moved to Raebareli While Sonia Gandhi, the MP from Rae Bareli, is not contesting the Lok Sabha election this time, sources said Rahul Gandhi might as well chose Wayanad and not contest from Amethi.
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Published: 26 Feb 2024, 11:12 AM IST