The BJP has dropped Varun Gandhi from the Pilibhit Lok Sabha seat. Former Congress leader Jitin Prasada, who joined the BJP in 2021, replaces Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit.
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.