BJP drops Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit, retains mother Maneka in Sultanpur

The BJP on Sunday released its fifth list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.

The party has dropped Varun Gandhi from the Pilibhit Lok Sabha seat but retained his mother, Maneka Gandhi, from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Former Congress leader Jitin Prasada, who joined the BJP in 2021, has been given the ticket from Pilibhit in place of Varun Gandhi.

Varun Gandhi allegedly fell out of favour with the BJP after he criticised the party’s governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh on several occassions.

Last year, in an apparent dig at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Varun Gandhi advised people not to “disrupt a nearby sadhu” as nobody knows “when ‘maharaaj ji’ will become the Chief Minister”.

In September 2023, he derided the Uttar Pradesh BJP government over the suspension of the licence of Amethi’s Sanjay Gandhi Hospital after the death of a patient.

In 2021, Varun Gandhi was ousted from the BJP’s national executive, allegedly after his remarks calling for fixing accountability and bringing the culprits to justice in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.

Earlier this year, there were reports that Varun Gandhi may join the Congress after he met his estranged cousin and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at the Kedarnath shrine in Uttarakhand a few months ago.

Given his activities, it was speculated that Varun Gandhi may not be fielded by the BJP for this year’s Lok Sabha elections. According to sources, Varun Gandhi was planning to contest as an Independent if the BJP denied him a ticket.

Sources also told India Today TV that recently, Varun Gandhi’s representatives returned from Delhi and brought four sets of nomination papers for the Pilibhit seat in Uttar Pradesh. There are also speculations that he may be in touch with other parties as well, like Samajwadi Party.

JITIN PRASADA FIELDED FROM PILIBHIT
Once considered one of the closest aides of Rahul Gandhi, Jitin Prasada left the Congress claiming he was being “ignored”.

Jitin Prasada made his electoral debut with Rahul Gandhi in 2004. Rahul Gandhi won the Lok Sabha election from Amethi while Jitin Prasada won the Shahjahanpur seat, which his father Jitendra Prasada had won four times. He became one of the youngest ministers in the Manmohan Singh government in 2008.

Jitin Prasada won his second Lok Sabha election from Dhaurara seat in 2009 and handled different portfolios in Manmohan Singh’s second government. In fact, he was part of G-23, the Congress’s group of dissenters who demanded sweeping reforms in the party’s organisation.

He is said to have developed differences with the Gandhis around the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election when Rahul Gandhi joined hands with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav as the Congress went back on its decision to contest the polls alone.

BJP’s LOK SABHA CANDIDATES LIST NAMES KANGANA RANAUT
Industrialist and former Congress MP Naveen Jindal, who joined the BJP today, has been fielded from the Kurukshetra seat in Haryana, the party’s fifth list announced on Sunday stated. In a stunning move, the ruling saffron party has named actress Kangana Ranaut as its candidate for Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi Lok Sabha seat.