Congress invites Varun Gandhi to join party, says BJP denies him ticket as he has connection with Gandhi family

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a senior Congress leader said on Tuesday that Varun Gandhi was denied a Lok Sabha ticket by the BJP due to his association with the Gandhi family. Chowdhury went on to extend an invitation to Varun Gandhi, welcoming him to join the grand old party.

Gandhi has recently been vocal against the BJP on several issues, including employment and health. However, his mother Maneka Gandhi has been retained in the list of the candidates, and has been fielded from Sultanpur parliamentary constituency. Varun and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi are cousins. Varun, a two-term Lok Sabha MP from Pilibhit, has often aired views deemed critical of his party's governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh.

Chowdhury described Varun as a “dabang neta (strong leader)” and said he is a learned man with a clean image. “He is a 'dabang neta' and a very educated man. He has a clean image. Varun Gandhi has a connection with the Gandhi family. This is why the BJP denied him a ticket (for Lok Sabha polls). I think he should come (join the Congress), we will be very happy," Chowdhury, the leader of the Congress party in the outgoing Lok Sabha, said.

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However, the BJP has renominated his mother Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur.Varun has been substituted with former Congress member Jitin Prasada to run for the Pilibhit seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP on Sunday declared 13 candidates from Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha polls including actor Arun Govil, who played Lord Ram in popular TV serial ”Ramayan”, from Meerut, while replacing sitting MP Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit with state minister Jitin Prasada.

The BJP fielded MLA Atul Garg from Ghaziabad and dropped sitting MP and Union minister Gen V K Singh (retd). Shortly before the list was released, Singh said in a post on X that he would not contest the Lok Sabha elections. Similarly, the party has fielded Ramesh Awasthi from Kanpur Lok Sabha seat, after sitting MP Satyadev Pachauri on Sunday expressed his unwillingness to contest the elections and conveyed the same to its president J P Nadda.

Apart from Varun Gandhi, VK Singh and Satyadev Pachauri, the other sitting MPs who have been denied ticket by the party are Santosh Gangwar (Bareilly), Sanghamitra Maurya (Budaun), Upendra Singh Rawat (Barabanki-SC), Rajveer Singh Diler (Hathras-SC), Akshayvar Gaud (Bahraich-SC) and Rajendra Agrawal (Meerut). Raghav Lakhanpal, who has got the ticket, was the Lok Sabha MP from Saharanpur in 2014. However, he lost the 2019 polls to BSP’s Haji Fazlur Rehman who was jointly fielded by the BSP, SP and RLD.

In its first list, the BJP had named 51 candidates from Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha elections. The notable names in the first list were that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Hema Malini from Mathura, Ajay Mishra Teni from Kheri, Smriti Irani from Amethi, Lallo Singh from Faizabad (Ayodhya) and Mahendra Nath Pandey from Chandauli, among others.

The new faces in the BJP list included Saket Mishra from Shrawasti, Kripa Shankar Singh from Jaunpur and Ritesh Pandey from Ambedkar nagar. Saket Mishra, who is the sitting MLC, is the son of Nripendra Mishra, Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple Construction Committee Chairman and former principal secretary to Prime Minister Modi. Kripa Shankar had quit the Congress to join the BJP and Pandey, sitting BSP MP, had recently switched sides.

With inputs from PTI.