BJP leader Varun Gandhi on Thursday campaigned for her mother Maneka Gandhi from the Sultanpur Lok Sabha constituency, the first time he stepped out for campaigning this election after being denied ticket from Pilibhit.
Without taking the name of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he said, “I have come to Sultanpur to only campaign for my mother.
“My father Sanjay Gandhi had contested from here, now my mother is seeking votes from here. So Sultanpur is my motherland,” he added.
Varun asserted he has no enmity towards the contenders of other parties, including the INDIA bloc candidate, and that he will be equally present for everyone in times of trouble.
“The soil of Sultanpur has the fragrance of my father. Everywhere, a leader is called ‘Mantriji’,’ Netaji’ or ‘Sansadji’ by the people. But in Sultanpur, everyone calls my mother ‘Mataji’,” he said.
Maneka is locked in a keen contest with her Samajwadi Party rival Ram Bhual Nishad and BSP nominee Udraj Verma from the seat in Uttar Pradesh.
She is contesting from the seat for the second consecutive time. Previously, she had won by a margin of around 14,000 votes. Among the top BJP leaders, only Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has campaigned for her in Sultanpur.
Since independence, Sultanpur has seen MPs from several parties, and no single party has outright dominance on the seat. The Congress won eight times in Sultanpur, while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won twice, and the BJP secured victory four times.