Varun Gandhi | |
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| Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha | |
| In office 23 May 2019 (2019-05-23) – 4 June 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Maneka Gandhi |
| Succeeded by | Jitin Prasada |
| Constituency | Pilibhit,Uttar Pradesh |
| In office 16 May 2014 (2014-05-16) – 23 May 2019 (2019-05-23) | |
| Preceded by | Sanjay Sinh |
| Succeeded by | Maneka Gandhi |
| Constituency | Sultanpur,Uttar Pradesh |
| In office 16 May 2009 (2009-05-16) – 16 May 2014 (2014-05-16) | |
| Preceded by | Maneka Gandhi |
| Succeeded by | Maneka Gandhi |
| Constituency | Pilibhit,Uttar Pradesh |
| National General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party | |
| In office 19 June 2013 (2013-06-19) – 16 September 2014 (2014-09-16) | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Feroze Varun Gandhi (1980-03-13)13 March 1980 (age 45) New Delhi, India |
| Political party | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| Spouse | |
| Children |
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| Parents |
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| Relatives | SeeNehru–Gandhi family |
| Alma mater | University of London |
| Occupation | |
| Source[1] | |
Feroze Varun Gandhi(listenⓘ) (born 13 March 1980) is an Indian politician who has been a three time Member of Parliament forLok Sabha from thePilibhit constituency. He is a member of theBharatiya Janata Party and was inducted intoRajnath Singh's team in March 2012 as General Secretary.[1] He belongs to theNehru–Gandhi family, which has occupied a prominent place in thepolitics of India since a time before the country's independence in 1947.
Feroze Varun Gandhi[2][3] was born inDelhi on 13 March 1980 toSanjay Gandhi andManeka Gandhi. He is the grandson of formerPrime Minister of India,Indira Gandhi and the great-grandson of India's firstPrime Minister,Jawaharlal Nehru. He is the nephew of formerPrime Minister of India,Rajiv Gandhi and cousin ofRahul Gandhi. Varun was born soon after Indira Gandhi regained power in the1980 general election. Sanjay Gandhi died in a plane crash when Varun was three months old in June 1980. Indira was assassinated when Varun was four years old on 31 October 1984. Varun attendedRishi Valley School andthe British School, New Delhi, where he ran for a position on the student council.[4]
Varun Gandhi was first introduced to the Pilibhit constituency by his mother during the 1999 election campaigning.[5] Maneka had been a part of theNational Democratic Alliance (NDA) since earlier but she and Varun formally joined BJP in 2004.[6] Varun Gandhi campaigned for the party in the 2004 elections, covering over 40 constituencies.[7]
In an interview toStephen Sackur onBBC'sHARDTalk in October 2005, Gandhi answered questions about the reasons behind his political affiliation and defended his father as someone who had helped revive the industrialisation of India by startingMaruti Udyog and whose strategy helped the Congress party's comeback after the first ever non-CongressJanata Party government following anelectoral routing for the Indira Gandhi-government afterEmergency, among many other things.[8]
In the2009 general election, the BJP decided to field Varun Gandhi as its candidate from thePilibhit constituency instead of hindhi.[9] He won the seat by receiving 419,539 votes and defeated his nearest contending candidate, V.M. Singh, by a margin of 281,501 votes.[10][11][12][13][14] The victory was the strongest of any of the four Gandhi family candidates in the election: his mother Maneka Gandhi, auntSonia Gandhi and first cousinRahul Gandhi. The security deposits of all other candidates, including those of V.M. Singh of theIndian National Congress and theBahujan Samaj Party candidate Ganga Charan Rajput were forfeited.[15] A case was filed against Gandhi for allegedly making a provocative speech about Muslims, at a meeting at Dalchand Mohalla area of Pilibhit; however, he was acquitted by in court in the matter.[16][17] On 5 March 2013, aPilibhit court acquitted Gandhi in the second hate speech case registered against him during the 2009 Lok Sabha election campaign.[18]
In August 2011, Varun Gandhi strongly pitched for theJan Lokpal Bill. Gandhi offered his official residence to activistAnna Hazare to hold his fast, after Hazare was denied permission by the government.[19] When Hazare was jailed, Gandhi offered to table the Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament.[20] On 24 August, he went toRamlila Maidan as a common man to support the cause ofAnna Hazare, becoming the first politician to openly support the anti-corruption cause.[21]
In March 2013,Rajnath Singh appointed Varun Gandhi as the national general secretary of the BJP. He became the youngest ever general secretary of the party.[22] In May 2013, Varun Gandhi was made in charge of the BJP's affairs in West Bengal.
In August 2013, newspapers reported that Gandhi was the only MP in the country who had spent all of his MP Local Area Development Fund (MPLAD) before stipulated time. According to official sources, Varun Gandhi used his funds for the development in education, health and infrastructure activities. His proposals were worth more than the entire MPLAD fund thus ensuring the entire amount of 25 crore was spent during his tenure as a Member of Parliament.[23]
Gandhi was highly critical of his cousinRahul Gandhi as well as the thenUttar Pradesh Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadav. He was projected as a youth face of the party within Uttar Pradesh.[24] In September 2013, Varun Gandhi accused the Samajwadi Party-led Uttar Pradesh government of pursuing the politics of appeasement, and said that its mistakes would lead to its collapse, after it denied permission to Varun Gandhi's rally in Agra just two days before it was scheduled to take place.[25]
He also denounced Rahul Gandhi's infamous outburst against the controversial ordinance against convicted lawmakers, and said that it was an insult to the Prime Minister, who was abroad at the time, and therefore also disgraceful to the nation.[26]
In February 2014, Gandhi kickstarted his campaign for the 2014 election inSultanpur. He gave an emotional speech to an enthusiastic crowd inKadipur, and said that he had come to Sultanpur to fulfill his father's dreams.[27]
In May 2014, Gandhi defeated Amita Singh from Sultanpur in Lok Sabha 2014 elections.[28]
In March 2016, he introduced the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2016 inLok Sabha.[29]
He contested fromPilibhit lok sabha constituency in2019 general elections and won with approx 250,000 votes to become an MP for the third consecutive time.[30]
Gandhi's relationship with the top leadership of the BJP declined and he became rather more critical of the policies of the party. It started after an October 2021 tweet in which he criticised the murder of farmer protestors inLakhimpur Keri District, Uttar Pradesh, which had potentially been linked to a party politician. This resulted in his removal from the Party’sNational Executive Committee.[31]
Gandhi writes articles and policy papers for several national dailies and magazines in India, such asThe Times of India,Hindustan Times,The Economic Times,The Indian Express,The Asian Age,The Hindu,Outlook among others. Gandhi writes the largest syndicated column in the country covering 21 newspapers—includingMalayala Manorama,Lokmat,Rajasthan Patrika,Punjab Kesari,Amar Ujala,Sandesh,Bartaman,Sakshi—reaching more than 200 million readers.[citation needed]
Gandhi wrote his first volume of poems, titledThe Otherness of Self, at the age of 20, in 2000. His second volume of poems, titled Stillness was published byHarperCollins in April 2015. The book became the bestselling non-fiction book, selling over 10,000 copies in the first two days of its release.[32]
In 2018, he released his book on the Indian rural economy titledThe Rural Manifesto: Realising India's Future Through Her Villages. The book sold over 30,000 copies in ten days of its release.[33]
His fourth book,The Indian Metropolis: Deconstructing India’s Urban Spaces, was released in February 2023.
Gandhi is married to Yamini Roy Chowdhury. His first daughter, Aadya Priyadarshini was born in 2011 but died when she was four months old.[34] His second daughter, Anasuya was born in 2014.[35]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)| Lok Sabha | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament from Sultanpur 2014 – present | Incumbent |
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