Varun Gandhi refuses Modi’s offer; says he will not contest against cousin Priyanka in Raebareli

New Delhi: In a major political development, BJP leader Varun Gandhi has declined to contest against his cousin and senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi at Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, despite personal requests from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top BJP leaders.

According to reports, Varun told Modi directly that elections were not a political comedy or circus. When Malayala Manorama contacted Varun about the development, he replied, “It is unethical to reveal matters that were discussed in private.”

Varun, the Member of Parliament (MP) from Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh (UP), was denied the seat by the BJP this time. Meanwhile, Congress has yet to announce its candidates for Raebareli and Amethi. It is speculated that Priyanka will contest from Raebareli and her brother Rahul Gandhi from Amethi.

The reports said that Modi spoke to Varun about his candidature from Raebareli twice, initially in March and again this week. Modi also told Varun that he would personally campaign in the constituency. However, party sources said that Varun replied to Modi that he did not consider politics as a circus where relatives fight each other.

Varun also declined Modi’s offer of a top post even if he lost the election. Modi was informed by Varun that he wished to stay away from politics for some time.

The BJP had earlier conducted an internal survey, which indicated that Varun would be the party’s best candidate in Raebareli. Over the last couple of weeks, BJP’s national president J P Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah and Modi spoke to Varun over the Raebareli seat. However, Varun refused to yield.

Varun was unhappy after the BJP did not allot him the Pilibhit seat this time. Incidentally, over the last 10 years, Varun has been publicly criticising the BJP governments at the Centre and in UP over issues such as unemployment, inflation and farmers’ agitation. Modi was willing to seek votes for Varun, apparently pardoning him for raising these allegations.

The BJP leadership, which felt that a big margin of victory for Priyanka in Raebareli would provide a boost to the Congress, conducted a survey in the constituency to identify a strong candidate for the party. The names suggested included former MP chief minister Uma Bharti; Nupur Sharma, who made a controversial comment against the Holy Prophet; deputy chief ministers of UP Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak; former MP Vinay Katiyar and MLA from Unchahar Manoj Pande. However, a majority of BJP workers in Raebareli said that none of these leaders could give a fight to Priyanka and demanded Varun as their candidate.