Varun Gandhi may fight independently if BJP denies ticket in LS polls: Sources

BJP's three-time MP Varun Gandhi might contest the Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate if the saffron party does not give him a ticket for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, sources told India Today. Varun Gandhi is a sitting MP from Pilibhit. The BJP has so far released two lists of candidates for the Lok Sabha election but has not fielded Gandhi yet. 

Sources said that Varun Gandhi's representatives returned from Delhi, brought four sets of nomination papers for the Pilibhit seat in Uttar Pradesh, and returned to the national capital. 

Varun Gandhi's mother Maneka Gandhi, who is sitting MP from Sultanpur, has also not been given a ticket as yet. The BJP has so far released candidates for 51 of 80 seats. Reports suggest that the BJP may give tickets to either Varun or Maneka. The buzz is that Jitin Prasada may be fielded from Pilibhit.

The BJP is yet to hold a Central Election Commission (CEC) to decide a candidate for Pilibhit. 

India Today reported that all state-level BJP leaders opposed giving a ticket to Varun Gandhi at the core committee meeting.

Last year, in an apparent dig at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Gandhi advised people not to "disrupt a nearby sadhu" as nobody knows "when 'maharaaj ji' will become the Chief Minister". 

In Septemeber 2023, he derided the Yogi government over the suspension of the licence of Amethi's Sanjay Gandhi Hospital after the death of a patient.

He took to social media platform X and said "resentment against a naam (name) should not spoil the kaam (work) for people".

(With inputs from Kumar Abhishek)