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Two days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dropped the name of Varun Gandhi, senior Congress leader and West Bengal unit president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday asked the sitting MP from Pilibhit constituency in Uttar Pradesh to join the grand old party and come to West Bengal.
The Congress candidate from the Berhampore constituency claimed that Varun Gandhi was denied the Lok Sabha ticket despite having a clean image because he is related to the Gandhi family.
“He should come here. We would be happy. He is an educated man. He has a clean image. BJP denied him a ticket because he is related to the Gandhi family. I think he should come (to Congress).” Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said.
In its fifth list of candidates, the BJP dropped Varun Gandhi from the Pilibhit Lok Sabha seat but retained his mother, Maneka Gandhi, from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Varun, who represented the high-profile seat two times, has been replaced with former Congress leader Jitin Prasada to contest from the Pilibhit seat in Uttar Pradesh in 2024 Lok Sabha Polls.
For quite some time now, speculation has been rife that Varun may not be fielded by the saffron party in 2024 because he attacked some of his party’s policies over the past few years. The Pilibhit MP has recently been vocal against the BJP on several issues, including employment and health. Some reports suggested that he would contest the elections either as an independent or as a Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate.
Varun allegedly also criticised the Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh on several occasions.
The report said in an apparent dig at Yogi Adityanath last year, the Pilibhit MP advised people not to “disrupt a nearby sadhu” as nobody knows “when ‘maharaaj ji’ will become the Chief Minister”
Meanwhile, the BJP MP allegedly told his close aides that he felt “cheated” because of which he won’t contest the elections, India Today reported citing sources
However, Varun has not made any official statement about his election moves yet.
The sources also said that the 44-year-old BJP leader had recently purchased four sets of nomination papers via his associate and all his party workers were asked to keep two vehicles and 10 motorcycles ready at every village of Pilibhit for election campaigning.
But ever since the BJP announced Prasada’s candidature, there has been no word from Varun Gandhi’s camp.
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Published: 26 Mar 2024, 03:03 PM IST
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