Gandhi has questioned the party leadership several times in the recent past, particularly over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.
New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party MP Varun Gandhi, whose Pilibhit constituency has been hit by heavy rains, on Thursday attacked the Uttar Pradesh government, saying if the common man is left to fend for himself, what does governance mean.
Three people were killed and hundreds were marooned as torrential rains lashed Bareilly and Pilibhit districts over two days, officials had said on Wednesday.
The Sharda and Deoha rivers are in spate due to heavy rainfall and many villages situated on their banks have been flooded. Around 500 villagers in Pilibhit are inundated by waters from the Sharda river.
On Tuesday night, the Pilibhit district administration sought the help of the Army for rescue operations and 26 people have been airlifted to safer places since Wednesday morning.
Gandhi had written to chief minister Yogi Adityanath demanding compensation for farmers whose crops have been damaged due to floods. Gandhi’s spokesperson M.R. Malik had said the MP has demanded that farmers who lost their crops be provided compensation.
Though he is a BJP MP, Gandhi has not been on good terms with the party off late, particularly in relation to the farmers’ protest. After the violence at Lakhimpur Kheri – during which a convoy of BJP workers including Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra allegedly mowed down protesting farmers, killing four of them – Gandhi tweeted multiple times about how the perpetrators must be brought to justice.
The three-time member of parliament from the Pilibhit constituency in Uttar Pradesh and his mother Maneka Gandhi, also an MP, were dropped from the BJP’s national executive committee days after the younger Gandhi shared a series of tweets condemning the incident.
Gandhi is one of the few BJP leaders who have vocally expressed their support to the slain farmers ever since the Lakhimpur Kheri incident captured national attention.
After Union minister Ajay Mishra had alleged that some Khalistani elements were present where the incident happened, Varun, without naming the minister, had responded to the comment saying it was an attempt to give communal colour to the event and that his actions are extremely dangerous for national unity.
Even after he was dropped from the national executive, Gandhi has not backtracked. Most recently, he posted on Twitter a short clip of a speech by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from 1980, in which he warns the then Indira Gandhi government against repressing farmers and extends his support to them.
Gandhi tweeted, “Wise words from a big-hearted leader…”
(With PTI inputs)
