The Bharatiya Janata Party’s best-ever performance in the Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh has raised expectations of many aspiring Chief Ministers in the party.
Though the Assembly polls are three years away, Union Women and Child Development Minister and Pilibhit MP Maneka Gandhi’s observation that her son and Sultanpur MP Varun Gandhi was an ideal candidate to head the State has ruffled many feathers in the party.
Speaking at a function organised by ‘Varun Gandhi Youth Brigade’ (a group of the young MP’s supporters) in Pilibhit, Ms. Gandhi propped up the name of the two-time MP as a person who can kick-start development work in the State that has been stalled by the Samajwadi Party government.
“There is a BJP government in the Centre and a Samajwadi Party government in U.P. Ever since the BJP has won Lok Sabha elections, SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav has stopped all development works in the State. He wants to humiliate the BJP MPs by his mean action. We would have initiated development works if there was a BJP government in U.P. as well. And it would have been wonderful if Varun was running the BJP government in the State. It would also have been great for Pilibhit,” she quipped.
Ms. Gandhi’s statement has created a flutter in party circles — from Delhi to Lucknow. Though Varun Gandhi went on damage control by stating that “it’s not my mother’s stand” and blamed the media for twisting her statement, senior party leaders in Delhi refused to comment on it.
But party insiders say BJP president Amit Shah is not amused. On the other hand, the State unit is terming it as Ms. Gandhi’s “personal opinion” and that the name of CM candidate would be announced at the “right time”.
BJP sources said party president Amit Shah has expressed his displeasure at the statement.
