Lok Sabha polls 2014: Varun Gandhi winds up campaign in Sultanpur

NEW DELHI: Even as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi arrived in Amethi to canvass for the party’s nominee Smriti Irani, contesting against Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi, the latter’s cousin, Varun Gandhi, set about winding up his own campaign in neighbouring Sultanpur.

His second election has been markedly different from his first as MP from Pilibhit, where he ended up in jail for alleged hate speeches. This time round, he has been soft spoken, reflective and surprisingly large hearted in his praise for his "Congress cousins". Quite clearly, controversy was not be courted, and a quiet reinvention was affected.

"The legal case against me has been dismissed by the courts, and no less than Justice Balakrishnan had said that my incarceration was not just illegal but immoral," he told ET. He admits that at 28 years, and in the midst of his first campaign, he may have got into the middle of a controversy too many. "In fact after I was elected I did go to areas in Pilibhit where there are minority communities, I told them, ‘I know you have some doubts about whether or not I will harm you’ but I made it a point to calm fears, and you will see that it will be one of the seats in UP where my party and my mother will poll heavily in minority areas," he said.

Gandhi’s mellowed tones reflect that his project Sultanpur is more than just a Lok Sabha poll for one seat. "In states like Uttar Pradesh we have to move beyond this kind of politics, for that to happen we have to be constantly internally vigilant," he says. But what of the brotherly love which attracted a snub from Priyanka Gandhi?

"Whatever she may have said, did you see me reacting to it? I want to move beyond this politics of one-upmanship," he said.
On the last day of campaigning, however, Narendra Modi’s presence in the area is hard to ignore in this belt of the Gandhi family. Were there hard feelings at Modi’s campaign for Irani and not him and what? "I knew just why it was felt that Modiji should campaign in Amethi and not Sultanpur," he said. He is also aware though that much has been written about the absence of the Modi name in his campaign. "I have mentioned him plenty of time in my speeches," he said. "For that matter, how many times have you heard me invoke Sanjay Gandhi or even the Gandhi name?" he said.

Holed up in Sultanpur for the last 24 days in hectic campaigning, Gandhi says he has been reading up Italo Calvino’s "Invisible Cities" a book that imagines Kublai Khan’s conversations with Marco Polo and description of cities visited by the explorer. "There is a quote in the book which has become a talisman of sorts," he says. "How does one escape the inferno of our life? The first, easy way is to be part of it so it doesn’t exist for you. The second, tougher way is to find pockets within where the inferno does not exist and be vigilant in saving it," he says.