'Dropping Advani, Varun from campaigners' list shows dictatorship of BJP'

A day after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released the list of 'star campaigners' for the upcoming UP election, dropping Varun Gandhi and senior leader LK Advani, the Congress on Sunday said the decision clearly shows the dictatorship prevailing in the saffron party.

"This is BJP's decision to decide whom to make the star campaigners and whom not, but people will criticise. Dropping senior leaders like LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, who were considered as game changer, from the list shows the dictatorship of the BJP," Congress leader P L Punia told ANI.

Punia further said that the veteran leaders, who have been carrying on the tradition of the party, were neglected and Varun Gandhi, who always raises his voice independently, was also excluded from the list.

Punia further questioned the BJP as why it removed senior and young leaders from the star campaigners list.

"The BJP should be questioned as why it dropped them? Are they not beneficial for BJP anymore? They can only explain this," he added

The BJP yesterday released its list of 'star campaigners' for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh polls which sported the names of several party heavyweights like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party chief Amit Shah and other Union Ministers, but BJP MP from Sultanpur, Varun Gandhi found his name missing from the list.

Joining Varun is BJP MP Vinay Katiyar, the face of the Ram temple movement in early 1990s, who was also dropped from the list by the party.

Senior mentors of BJP, Murli Manohar Joshi and Advani have also not been mentioned in the list of star campaigners.

However, Varun's mother Maneka Gandhi is in the list and so is controversial party MP Yogi Adityanath.

Earlier, reports had emerged that Varun was reportedly upset with his party for being neglected and sidelined ahead of the UP Polls.

Contesting his maiden election from Pilibhit in 2009, Varun landed in Etah prison for three weeks for a purported hate speech.

UP being the electoral state of Prime Minister Modi, who contested and won from Varanasi, a loss of this state will be a blow for the BJP.