Reports yesterday said BJP had taken exception to a poster blitz projecting Varun Gandhi as its key UP face.
Highlights
- Varun Gandhi skips important meeting called by Amit Shah
- Meeting attended by 65 of 71 MPs from Uttar Pradesh
- BJP had taken exception to poster blitz projecting Varun as key UP face
Varun Gandhi skipped an important meeting of the BJP's lawmakers called by party president Amit Shah on Monday evening, adding to the buzz around the young member of Parliament ever since his rockstar-style arrival at the party's two-day convention in Allahabad over the weekend.
Mr Gandhi's absence at the meeting - where more than 65 of the party's 71 MPs from Uttar Pradesh were present - was all the more noticeable after reports that the BJP is contemplating action against those who designed a marketing blitz for the lawmaker that seemed to project him as a possible chief ministerial candidate in the state, where elections will be held early next year.
Hundreds of posters featuring Varun Gandhi, a big welcome at the airport, roadshows on the way to the venue for the BJP national executive and his arrival in a cavalcade of two dozen cars did not go down well with the party leadership, who sought to know who was behind it.
The posters of Varun Gandhi had not gone down well with the BJP leadership.
Sources told NDTV that a report was presented after a swift investigation and the party may act against the Varun Gandhi supporters responsible for the "hoarding blitz". The BJP's UP chief KP Maurya has reportedly already hauled up the party workers in an indirect signal to the lawmaker that those who tried to project him breached party line.
Though Mr Maurya denied upbraiding the workers, he said, "the party has a discipline. There is a
laxman rekha which shouldn't be breached."
In a statement to NDTV, Varun Gandhi said he had taken Mr Shah's permission to skip the meet.
He also said that he had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed internal surveys, referring to ones carried out by the BJP from the ground which indicated that the Gandhi scion was one of the more popular faces among most of the leaders in the state.
The party has not taken the matter up directly with Varun Gandhi, but the disquiet is visible, not least in his absence at the meeting of MPs called by Mr Shah. His mother and union minister Maneka Gandhi, also a party lawmaker from UP, was present at the meeting. Among the few who were not were Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Rajnath Singh who had engagements in Delhi and Mathura MP Hema Malini, who had sought permission to stay away.
"He must have had some prior engagement," said Mr Maurya.