Lok Sabha elections 2024: BJP dropping Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit? Uncertainty continues

Speculation is rife that the BJP may not field Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit, one of the most high-profile seats in Uttar Pradesh in which case he may contest the election as an Independent candidate.

Pilibhit will see voting in the first phase on April 19, for which the nomination process began Wednesday.

The SP had reached out to Gandhi, offering him a ticket. Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “Our organisation would decide what decision is to be taken about it.”

However, late on Wednesday night, in its sixth list of another six candidates, the SP named ex-minister Bhagwat Saran Gangwar as its nominee from the Pilibhit seat.

Former Union minister Maneka Gandhi, Varun’s mother, had contested from Pilibhit as a Janata Dal candidate in 1989. She lost the seat in 1991, but won it back in 1996. Maneka went on to win the seat as an Independent in 1998 and 1999. She won the seat on the BJP ticket in 2004.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Maneka left the seat for Varun, who won it by a margin of over two lakhs.

Maneka returned to fight from Pilibhit in 2014, winning it by about three lakh votes. In 2019, Varun contested from the seat again as the BJP nominee, defeating SP candidate Hemraj Verma by nearly 2.5 lakh votes.