In what is being seen as a conscious move by union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi to project her son Varun Gandhi as a potential candidate for the CM’s post in Uttar Pradesh, Maneka Gandhi said while addressing a public meeting in Pilibhit on Sunday that it would be better if BJP was in power in the state.
She in fact made no bones about the aspirations she had for her son by announcing that it would be much better if her son Varun led the government in the state.
She accused Mulayam Singh Yadav of stalling developmental activities in the state and of punishing the people of UP for having voted against the Samajwadi Party during the 2014 general elections.
Despite Akhilesh Yadav being voted to power as the youngest chief minister of UP, there is wide-spread discontentment among the people due to constant breakdown of law and order and lack of developmental activity.
So, by the time Maneka ended her speech, the crowd was heard raising the slogan – Hamara CM kaisa ho? Varun Gandhi jaisa ho, which when translated reads as How should our CM be? He should be like Varun Gandhi.
With the state gearing up for Assembly elections to be held in 2017, BJP is hopeful of sweeping the polls, given the huge support that BJP got during the recent LS elections.
Though there are quite a few names in the fray like Kalyan Singh’s son and Etah MP Rajveer Singh; Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath; union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj Singh and even UP BJP chief Bajpai. Then there is Pankaj Singh who has six Facebook accounts and is being projected as the next CM of UP. He has been quite active in organizing Modi’s rallies in UP and is currently the general secretary of BJP-UP.
But Varun Gandhi enjoys a relatively comfortable position as he is considered to be a good speaker and has the Gandhi legacy working in his favour.
Incidentally, his cousin Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra is likely to be elected the Congress incharge-UP and he already has lots of support on social media.
His supporters have also started the Varun Gandhi Youth Brigade. The group is a support organization for the Sultanpur MP and is already active in west UP operating offices in 15 districts.
Their slogan ‘Modi desh mein, Varun Pradesh mein’ has become popular among the cadre and public.
The Brigade has a Facebook page and they have already garnered 46,000 likes. About seven pages are dedicated to the group.
The page has a poster of Varun Gandhi alongside a caption which says ‘a man is single when he fights, but the entire world supports him for his success. Whenever the world laughed at a fighter, every time, he has made history’.
Ironically, the BJP High Command has tight-lipped about Varun’s candidature and maintain that it is too early to comment on such statements.
