HT Digital,
New Delhi, March 24: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced its fifth candidate list for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on Sunday, replacing Varun Gandhi with former Congress leader Jitin Prasada for the Pilibhit Lok Sabha seat.
Maneka Gandhi, Varun’s mother and former Union Minister, has been retained as a candidate from Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
Jitin Prasada, who parted ways with Congress in 2021 due to alleged neglect, had previously served as a Union Minister under the Manmohan Singh government.
He was also a part of the G-23 group in Congress, a faction demanding comprehensive reforms within the party.
Prasada’s differences with the Gandhi family reportedly surfaced during the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections when the Congress reneged on their decision to contest the elections independently and allied with the Samajwadi Party.
