Union Minister Maneka Gandhi plugs for Varun Gandhi as UP Chief Minister

While UP BJP president Laxmikant Bajpai said this was Ms Gandhi’s personal view, the party’s central leadership was tightlipped on who would be its “face” in the state where Assembly polls are due in 2017.

Mr Varun Gandhi, MP from Sultanpur, tried to play down his mother’s remarks, with a news agency quoting him saying: “It’s not my mother’s stand, it’s a vivid media report.”

Addressing a public meeting on Sunday at Pilibhit, her parliamentary constituency, Maneka said: “It would have been better had there been our (BJP) government in the state, then we would have got work done authoritatively. It would have been even better if the government was run by Varun, (then) Pilibhit should have benefited most.”

She made these remarks while blaming the Akhilesh Yadav government for slow development. “I think he (Varun) is doing very well. It’s his second time as Member of Parliament, and he is very comfortable in it... He does a lot of reading. He writes articles for a large number of newspapers. He is a very well-informed young man and I am happy with his progress,” the Union minister added.