BJP candidate Jitin Prasada files nomination from Pilibhit, MP Varun Gandhi remains absent

Local leaders remained tight-lipped about Varun Gandhis absence.Before filing the nomination papers, Prasada offered prayers at the Yashwanti Devi temple in Pilibhit and then addressed an election meeting on the temple premises.Exuding confidence about his victory from the seat, Prasada, the PWD minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, said, I thank the national and the state leadership of BJP for fielding me in the election.

Uttar Pradesh Minister Jitin Prasada, who replaced party leader Varun Gandhi as the BJP candidate from the Pilibhit constituency, filed his nomination papers on Wednesday.

BJP MLAs from all four assembly constituencies in Pilibhit -- Sanjay Gangwar, Baburam Paswan, Vivek Verma and Swami Prakhashanand -- were the proposers in Prasada's nomination papers, the BJP candidate's lawyer Saroj Kumar Bajpai told PTI.

Prasada has mentioned in his nomination papers that his total movable and immovable assets are worth Rs 15 crore, Bajpai said.

Varun Gandhi was not in Pilibhit on Wednesday. According to his personal secretary Kamal Kant, the incumbent Pilibhit MP is in Delhi. Local leaders remained tight-lipped about Varun Gandhi's absence.

Before filing the nomination papers, Prasada offered prayers at the Yashwanti Devi temple in Pilibhit and then addressed an election meeting on the temple premises.

Exuding confidence about his victory from the seat, Prasada, the PWD minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, said, ''I thank the national and the state leadership (of BJP) for fielding me in the election. I will work to strengthen (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi by winning the Pilibhit seat.'' The seat has been held by the BJP for the past four Lok Sabha elections.

In the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, Prasada won from Shahjahanpur on a Congress ticket. In 2009, he won the Dhaurahara seat and was made Union minister in the Congress government.

Even though Varun Gandhi was dropped from the list of Lok Sabha candidates by the BJP, senior party leader and Uttar Pradesh minister Swatantra Dev Singh, at the public meeting said, ''Varun Gandhi is our leader and the party will use him in some other place.'' The BJP's state president Bhupendra Chaudhary, while speaking to reporters in Sambhal on Tuesday, said, ''Varun Gandhi is a senior leader and the party will soon give him some tasks.'' The Pilibhit seat has remained with Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun Gandhi since 1989. Maneka Gandhi won the seat on a Janta Dal ticket in 1989, repeated her victory on the same party's nomination in 1996 and as an Independent candidate in 1998. She won the seat again in 2004 as a BJP candidate.

Varun Gandhi won the seat in 2009 on a BJP ticket. In 2014, Maneka Gandhi returned to the seat and won on the BJP ticket and in 2019 Varun Gandhi won on a BJP ticket.

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