'Varun Gandhi to campaign during two week parole'

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Thursday that Varun Gandhi would campaign for the party during his two-week parole granted by the Supreme Court.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Thursday that Varun Gandhi would campaign for the party during his two-week parole granted by the Supreme Court.

“The Bharatiya Janata Party welcomes the Supreme Court decision. Varun Gandhi is an active party worker. He will campaign for the party,” BJP spokesperson Balbir Punj told reporters after the Supreme Court ordered the "forthwith release" of the party's candidate from Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh.

This would enable him to file his nomination by the deadline on April 24.

“Where all he will go and for whom he will campaign will depend on Varun's comfort and demand from candidates to campaign for them - there are a lot of people who want him to campaign for them,” Punj added.

The court said Varun Gandhi would be released on Thursday after submitting an affidavit to the authorities in Etah jail, where he has been since April 1, that he will not make provocative speeches during the poll campaign. He would be filing a similar affidavit to the Supreme Court by Monday.

Varun Gandhi's lawsuit challenging the invocation of the National Security Act (NSA) will be heard in the apex court on May 1.

“We believe when the Uttar Pradesh government's decided to slap the National Security Act, it was acting under vendetta. They grossly misused the act. We didn't trust them then and we don't now,” Punj said.

“Justice has been done partially at least,” Punj concluded, adding that “everything would become clear in the hearing”.

The Gandhi scion has been in jail for around two weeks and had been arrested after a series of campaign speeches vilifying Muslims, the tapes of which he said had been doctored.