JOIN USManeka pitches for Varun as next UP chief minister
The BJP may not have decided on its chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh, but senior saffron leader and Union minister Maneka Gandhi wants to see her son, Varun Gandhi, as the next chief minister of the state.
The UP Assembly elections are around two-and-a-half-years away. During a visit to her Lok Sabha constituency, Pilibhit, Maneka on Sunday said that the people of Uttar Pradesh were suffering as the present dispensation had not done anything for development.
“UP is lagging behind other states. The state would have prospered had there been a BJP government here. The progress would have been faster if Varun had been at the helm. Pilibhit would have gained immensely if Varun had been the chief minister,” she said, while addressing a meeting of BJP workers.
On hearing this, the partymen started shouting slogans in favour of Varun. The venue reverberated with the slogan “Hamara CM kaisa ho...Varun Gandhi jaisa ho” (Our chief minister should be someone like Varun Gandhi) as Maneka looked on.
State BJP leaders, however, were cautious in their reactions to Maneka’s remarks. State party president Laxmi Kant Bajpai said that the BJP had not yet taken a decision on projecting anyone as the next chief minister of the state for the next Assembly polls.
“That may be the minister’s personal opinion...it is for the party to take a decision on the issue,” he said.
Some leaders felt that Maneka should not have publicly promoted her son. There are several aspirants for the top post and a section of state leaders said they were against Varun’s candidature.
Varun had represented Pilibhit in 2009 and Maneka had shifted to the neighbouring Aonla Lok Sabha constituency. In the recently concluded general elections, however, Maneka returned to Pilibhit and Varun shifted to Sultanpur, his father Sanjay Gandhi’s constituency.