BJP MP dares Varun Gandhi to quit party for parroting Cong over UP lathi-charge incident

Coming down heavily on Varun Gandhi for his repeated criticism of the government, fellow BJP MP Harnath Singh Yadav dared him to immediately quit the party. In his latest tweet on Sunday, Gandhi decried the lathicharge on the protesters holding a candlelight march over the alleged irregularities in the UP Teachers' Entrance Test.

The Pilibhit MP has also been at odds with the BJP government's approach towards the anti-farm laws protesters demanding a law guaranteeing Minimum Support Price for crops.

Speaking to ANI, Harnath Singh Yadav said, "Varun Gandhi is speaking the language of the Congress. If there is any morality left in him and if has made up his mind that he will speak against the BJP and wants to go to Congress or anywhere else, then he should immediately resign from the BJP." 

"He (Varun Gandhi) should respect the dignity and discipline of the party. BJP's discipline should be followed while he is in BJP," Yadav added.

Gandhi's outburst assumes significance ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election due early next year. 

Varun Gandhi differs from the BJP line

A Lok Sabha MP since 2009, Varun Gandhi was appointed as BJP's general secretary - the youngest to hold that position in the party. However, he gradually started losing his prominence after the saffron party came to power at the Centre in 2014.

Moreover, the attempt by his supporters to project him as BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls reportedly did not go down well with the party leadership. In another setback, his mother Maneka Gandhi was also sidelined after being left out of the new NDA government in 2019.

Recently, the Pilibhit MP sparked a buzz by openly condemning the murder of farmers in Lakhimpur and demanding justice. Warning against turning the incident into a "Hindu vs Sikh" battle, he emphasised that petty political gains cannot override national unity.

On October 8, he along with his mother was dropped from the reconstituted 80-member BJP National Executive. In an intriguing reaction to this development, Varun Gandhi claimed, "I have not attended a single National Executive meeting for the last five years. I do not think I was on it".