BJP drops Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit, picks Cong turncoat Jitin Prasada; retains Maneka

The Bharatiya Janata Party on 24th March dropped sitting MP Varun Gandhi from its fifth candidate list and replaced him with Congress turncoat Jitin Prasada for Pilibhit Lok Sabha constituency.

There have been doubts over Varun getting BJP ticket again as he has been taking a critical stand on many issues against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre and Yogi Adityanath-led state government in Uttar Pradesh.

There are also reports that Varun might join the Samajwadi Party.

Earlier on March 20, Akhilesh Yadav said that the party will take an appropriate call if Varun doesn't get a BJP ticket.

“The party will take a call (on giving a ticket to Varun) if such a situation arises,” he said.

Meanwhile, the BJP has retained his mother and former union minister Maneka Gandhi. She will continue to contest from Uttar Pradesh's Sultanpur.

The BJP has fielded Atul Garg from Ghaziabad and dropped sitting MP and Union Minister V K Singh. Shortly before the list was announced, Singh said in a post on X that he will not contest the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

Similarly, the party has fielded Ramesh Awasthi from Kanpur Lok Sabha seat, after sitting MP Satyadev Pachauri on Sunday expressed his unwillingness to contest the elections and conveyed the same to the party's national president J P Nadda.

This is the second list of candidates from UP released by the BJP for the Lok Sabha elections. The party is yet to declare its candidate for the Raebareli Lok Sabha seat.

In Budaun, the party has announced the name of Durvijay Singh Shakya, overlooking its current MP Sanghamitra Maurya.

In Bareilly, the party has replaced sitting MP Santosh Gangwar and given the ticket to Chattrapal Singh Gangwar.

The party has announced Raghav Lakhanpal as its nominee from Saharanpur, Sarvesh Singh from Moradabad and Satish Gautam from Aligarh seats.

On the reserved seats of Barabanki and Bahraich, the BJP has named Rajrani Rawat and Arvind Gond respectively.

The BJP in its first list had named its sitting MP Upendra Rawat from Barabanki. Rawat, however, refused to contest the election after an obscene video allegedly involving him surfaced on social media.

(With PTI inputs)

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