One of the most recent and serious war of words which may have proved to be the last nail in the coffin was when the BJP leader hit out at the Uttar Pradesh government in September last year, criticising the suspension of Sanjay Gandhi Hospital’s licence in Amethi
The BJP has dropped as many as seven sitting Members of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh in its fifth list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, including Union minister VK Singh from Ghaziabad and former Union minister Santosh Gangwar from Bareilly. However, the absence of Varun Sanjay Gandhi from the names picked for the 2024 battle has stood out from the rest. Uttar Pradesh minister Jitin Prasada has been fielded instead from Pilibhit — a seat held between Varun and his mother Maneka Gandhi since 1996.
A year before Narendra Modi burst onto the national scene, Varun Gandhi was made BJP’s national general secretary and in-charge of West Bengal. However, he hardly ever showed interest in organisational work. It was Bengal’s co-incharge Siddharth Nath Singh who would function on his behalf.
Though his constant diatribes against Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav ensured his slip-ups were not noticed in the run-up to the 2014 elections, soon, problems started brewing between him and the BJP.
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CM AMBITION IN 2016
One of the first instances that probably irked the BJP leadership was in 2016 when Sanjay Gandhi’s son declared a poster war within the party. Just ahead of BJP’s crucial national executive meet in Prayagraj — back then still called Allahabad— massive hoardings with Varun Gandhi’s face along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah’s images were found plastered across the city.
Some posters read “Na apradh, na brashtachar, abki baar Bhajpa Sarkar” (No crime, no corruption, this time it will be a BJP government). It was construed that Varun was projecting himself as the next chief ministerial face of the BJP in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh election. What shocked many was his overdrive despite the BJP leadership asking him to restrict his political activities to Sultanpur — his then constituency.
SOLO VENTURE: HOUSING
The same year, Varun started a housing initiative under which he built many houses with MP-LAD (Member of Parliament Local Area Development) funds for the poor, Muslims and backward castes. He also used his personal funds for building houses.
While delivering the houses, he reportedly said, “I’m an optimist and believe in doing things which can help people. They (people) are fed up with the old political ways. Today’s youth believe in results rather than mere rhetoric.”
Many at that time saw it as a dig at his other colleagues and the party did not take too kindly to it.
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VARUN VS BJP DURING COVID
The first wave of Covid-19 was over and during the second wave, a night curfew was brought back in 2021 — a move that did not sit well with Varun Gandhi. He questioned the decision of state governments, including that of Yogi Adityanath’s, to impose a night curfew to curb Covid-19.
In a seemingly direct attack on the BJP by its own party leader, Varun Gandhi said: “Imposing curfew at night after assembling lakhs of people for rallies in the day defies the common man’s wisdom.” He also used a BJP-ruled Centre’s note to the Maharashtra government in March 2021 which said that measures such as night curfews and weekend lockdowns have a very limited impact on containing or suppressing the transmission. This ended up embarrassing the government as well as the party.
VARUN VS BJP ON LAKHIMPUR KHERI
The same year, Varun Gandhi engaged in a war with his party once again when eight people, including four farmers, lost their lives in Lakhimpur Kheri as vehicles linked to Union minister Ajay Misra Teni rammed into a crowd of protesting farmers.
Varun Gandhi took to social media, calling for accountability and bringing the culprits to justice in the case, even while the BJP leadership was defending Teni. Interestingly, that year in October, Varun Gandhi was dropped from the 80-member National Executive along with his mother Maneka Gandhi. It was widely seen as a rebuke to his anti-party stand.
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VARUN VS YOGI ADITYANATH
One of the most recent and serious war of words which may have proved to be the last nail in the coffin was when the BJP leader hit out at the Uttar Pradesh government in September last year, criticising the suspension of Sanjay Gandhi Hospital’s licence in Amethi. He termed it “resentment against a name (Naam)”.
The hospital is named after Varun Gandhi’s father and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi is the chairperson of the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Trust, which runs the Amethi Hospital.
It may be difficult to pinpoint when Varun Gandhi and the BJP reached a point of no return. The party gave him a re-nomination in the 2019 Lok Sabha, hoping that he would course-correct. But with the 2024 Lok Sabha election knocking at its doors, the BJP leadership seems to have had enough.
Though, in the last few months, Varun Gandhi has been trying to make up by praising the Modi government’s work, his long track record of embarrassing the party couldn’t be compensated in a few months.
While Varun Gandhi has been unceremoniously but predictably dropped, the BJP has sought to maintain a balance with the family by renominating his mother Maneka Gandhi from her seat Sultanpur. A minister in Vajpayee’s and Modi’s government (first term) alike, a ticket to Maneka Gandhi is a signal that BJP isn’t averse to the family but her son’s consistent anti-party diatribe that sees no end.
