BJP President Amit Shah is especially miffed at Varun’s recent visit to Allahabad where the party is holding its 2-day national executive from Sunday to finalise the party strategy for the Uttar Pradesh elections slated in December.
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The sources spoke amid fresh speculation that Rajnath Singh was likely to be the Bharatiya Janata Party’s chief ministerial face in Uttar Pradesh where assembly elections are due next year.
The elite Special Protection Group (SPG), responsible for the Prime Minister’s security, arrived here on Thursday and has been busy reviewing security arrangements at the Kayastha Pathshala sports ground where the meeting will be held under a huge air-conditioned marquee, and the Parade Ground near the holy Sangam where a public rally will be held on Monday.
The BJP leader, who is also an office bearer in the Uttar Pradesh unit, however, added: “But it is true that Rajnath Singh was offered the party’s chief ministerial candidature a month ago”.
All this, however, leaves the top BJP leadership in a pickle on how to project a credible face for its Uttar Pradesh poll campaign. They include former Odisha chief minister and tribal leader Giridhar Gamang and saffron party leader KV Singh Deo, also from that state.
The BJP national executive will also discuss the achievements of the Modi government to establish that critics who raised questions about the PM’s lack of experience at the Centre have been proved wrong. “The cocktail politics of Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Congress and Rashtriya Lok Dal have ruined the state”, BJP national secretary Srikant Sharma told IANS.
It will be no wonder if Varun breaks away from the BJP, much against the advice of his mother Maneka Gandhi, union minister for women and child development, to chart his political future in some other party. The person projected as the party’s choice for chief ministership will have to reflect the values, principles and vision of the BJP and also be subservient to its discipline.
If Varun Gandhi had been constantly badmouthing his aunt and cousins in the Congress, the prime minister’s resentment towards him may perhaps have lessened a bit, but his dogged refusal to do so, and even have the temerity to meet them occasionally, has raised deep suspicions of him as a possible Trojan Horse of the Gandhis in the BJP camp.
While the two-day national executive will take a hard look at probable candidates, Union home minister Rajnath Singh is expected take charge of campaigning along with party president Amit Shah.
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Take Delhi for example, where the BJP dithered on naming a CM candidate against Arvind Kejriwal.
