Shotgun backs Varun as BJP's face for UP elections

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Patna Sahib MP Shatrughan Sinha on Sunday backed Sultanpur MP Varun Gandhi as party's face for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections due next year. "Varun Gandhi is known among the people as a fighter who strives hard for the party. He has the acceptability of the people of Uttar Pradesh and he is a leader with wisdom," Sinha said. However, Sinha maintained that it is upon the party to decide who will be its face for the chief ministerial candidate. Recently, a rash of "unofficial" posters has broken out in Allahabad. The hoardings showed disgruntled BJP politicians Varun Gandhi, Shatrughan Sinha and Sanjay Joshi, none of whom has a comfortable relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi or party chief Amit Shah. Sinha, MP from Patna Sahib, has aligned himself with veteran L.K. Advani and makes no secret of his fondness for Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. Joshi has been a long-time thorn in Modi's flesh. But it was Sultanpur MP Varun who was the star in this cast of dissidents and dominated most of the billboards. Posters depicting the three MPs - Smriti Irani, Varun Gandhi and Yogi Adityanath - have been periodically spotted in Uttar Pradesh. The poster put up in Allahabad  juxtaposed Smriti and Varun with a punch line that was uncomplimentary to the HRD minister. It said: "Smriti Irani huyee bimar, Uttar Pradesh ki yehee pukaar, Varun Gandhi ab ki baar (Smriti Irani has become unfit, Uttar Pradesh's call is, this time it will be Varun Gandhi). Local BJP politicians had said the posters, including those showing Shatrughan and Joshi, were put up five days ago by the Varun Yuva Brigade, a fan club spread across eastern and central Uttar Pradesh. Determined to follow the "Assam model"- where the BJP declared Sarbananda Sonowal its putative chief minister a little over four months before the polls -sources said in Uttar Pradesh too the party hoped to firm up a name by June.