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Varun's UP visit may provide tonic to divided BJP
Barring one blink-and-miss appearance couple of months back, Varun Gandhi, (30), BJP's national secretary who has not been to the party's office in Lucknow since finding a place in Team Gadkari, will be arriving in Lucknow today.
Barring one blink-and-miss appearance couple of months back, Varun Gandhi, (30), BJP's national secretary who has not been to the party's office in Lucknow since finding a place in Team Gadkari, will be arriving in Lucknow on Wednesday.
Much sought after by the BJP MLA's in UP, Varun who is besieged with requests from party MLAs, wanting him to address public meetings in their constituencies. He will be accorded a warm welcome on his arrival at the airport, an indication that the RSS now wants to aggressively market the 'Varun brand' ahead of the 2012 assembly elections in the state. The young leader will be interacting with party workers, who stand divided ever since the state office bearers' list was announced.
Harish Dubey, the newly appointed state president of the Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) will arrive a day later. The two visits, BJP leaders hope, will help the party, divided like never before ever since the list of state office bearers' was declared, get some "positive publicity".
"Varun would certainly grab the attention of the media and the masses. He is quite popular among party workers too. He has not been afraid to attack the state government in his typical style. A day later, the state youth brigade would get active, to welcome their new chief. All this, hopefully would shift the focus away from the recent controversy after the announcement of the UP list. Many senior leaders have been washing their dirty linen in public ever since. The Varun-visit would hopefully charge the party cadre," a party leader said. Senior BJP leader Kalraj Mishra too was in the city on Monday and former party president Rajnath Singh too is expected to arrive here soon -- an indication that BJP high command is "worried" over the recent UP developments and wants to get the party's workers to be active again.
