Kamalkant, personal secretary of MP Varun Gandhi, reached the nomination venue and purchased four sets of nomination papers, which clearly shows that MP Varun Gandhi will contest the elections from Pilibhit parliamentary seat only. Now only time will tell whether MP Varun Gandhi will contest the election on BJP ticket or he will contest as an independent candidate.
Samajwadi Party has put an end to the ongoing speculation regarding ticket for Pilibhit parliamentary seat on Wednesday evening. The SP high command has declared former minister Bhagwatsaran Gangwar as its candidate. The election contest here is likely to be interesting with the Kurmi card of Samajwadi Party. However, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has not yet announced the name of its candidate.
Axe on Varun Gandhi amid discussion to down his candidature from Pilibhit
Voting is to be held in the first phase on the seats of Pilibhit, Saharanpur and Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. Still, till now BJP has not been able to announce its candidates on these important seats. One of these important seats is Pilibhit, from where Varun Gandhi is the MP.
The situation regarding him is not clear yet, but he has started campaigning. Apart from this, he has also purchased nomination papers. There is talk that if he does not get the ticket from BJP, he can also contest as an independent. Apart from this, there is also a discussion going on that Maneka Gandhi has talked to the BJP leadership.
BJP considers retaining Maneka Gandhi
She has said that if Varun Gandhi gets a chance, she will give up her claim. However, it is not yet clear what BJP’s stand is on this. The nomination process for the first phase has started. In such a situation, BJP’s third list will come in the next day or two, in which the suspense on the Pilibhit candidate will also be ended.
Apart from this, there is a situation of doubt on Kaiserganj Lok Sabha seat of Eastern UP. Brijbhushan Sharan Singh is the MP from here, who had allegations of sexual harassment of women wrestlers.
BJP’s all set for Maneka from Sultanpur
As the buzz around the BJP’s plan to deny a ticket to Varun Gandhi, the sitting BJP MP from Pilibhit, is getting stronger, other political payers are coming into play including Samajwadi party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who has dropped a hint of fielding the Gandhi scion saying his party could think on those lines.
As per highly-placed sources, the ruling BJP which has already revealed the names of 51 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP in its first list, is yet to declare the remaining 24 seats, including Pilibhit and Sultanpur where Maneka Gandhi is the sitting MP.
The sources claim that while the BJP is considering to repeat Maneka Gandhi in Sultanpur, the axe may fall on Varun Gandhi who had been very aggressively vocal against the central and the UP governments for the last couple of years. The party has spared five seats for the allies including two each for Jayant Chaudhury-led RLD, Anupriya Patel-led Apna Dal (S), one for OP Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP).
The sources also claim that the ruling party may consider UP PWD minister Jitin Prasad of Sanjay Gangwar, the sitting BJP MLA in Pilibhit, to replace Varun Gandhi.
Samajwadi party fielded his candidate
On the other hand, on Wednesday, MP Varun Gandhi’s personal secretary Kamal Kant reached the nomination venue and purchased four sets of nomination papers, which clearly shows that MP Varun Gandhi will contest the elections from Pilibhit parliamentary seat only.
National President of Samajwadi Party and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had called the party officials of the district on Tuesday and held discussions for about one and a half hour.
If Varun files nomination as Independent, SP may backed his candidature
Such statements are coming out from the Samajwadi Party in which they are saying that if Varun Gandhi contests the parliamentary elections from Pilibhit as an independent, then the Samajwadi Party is ready to withdraw its candidate.
During this, the names of former minister Bhagwatsaran Gangwar, who has been MLA from Nawabganj area of Bareilly several times, and Roshanlal Verma, former MLA from Tilhar in Shahjahanpur district, were discussed in depth. Besides, brainstorming was also done regarding the possible candidate of BJP.
It was believed that the Samajwadi Party would open its cards only after the announcement of the BJP candidate, but on Wednesday evening the Samajwadi Party declared former minister Bhagwatsaran Gangwar as its candidate from the Pilibhit parliamentary seat in the list of six candidates from Uttar Pradesh.
