Gandhi surname only reason I am MP: Varun Gandhi's blunt confession

Clamour is growing in Congress for Rahul Gandhi to be appointed as party president.

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Varun Gandhi on Saturday said that his surname Gandhi helped him become a parliamentarian at the age of 29.

“I am Feroze Varun Gandhi. If my surname was not Gandhi would have I become an MP at the age of 29 years?” the MP from Sultanpur said.

The fireband BJP leader vouched for people getting equal opportunities and hoped that an individual is not judged by his surname in India.

“Want to see an India where it doesn't matter if I was Varun Dutta or Varun Ghosh or Varun Khan. All must get equal opportunities,” he asserted.

Varun's confession regarding his surname comes at a time when reports are doing rounds that Rahul Gandhi will soon be elevated to Congress president's post.

BJP leaders have been hitting out at Rahul Gandhi saying, the Gandhi scion is incapable of leading the grand old party and he is being favoured because of his surname.

Of late, many Congress leaders have publicly expressed their desire that Rahul Gandhi takes over as Congress president from his mother Sonia Gandhi.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala recently said that Rahul continues to be the "unquestioned choice" of all workers and leaders for the post of party president.

Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot had echoed the same sentiments saying that the Congress vice president may take over as the party president after Diwali and that the time was ripe for him to "lead from the front".

Senior party leader M Veerappa Moily had also hinted that the Gandhi scion may take charge as Congress president through an “internal election process”.

However, with final date yet to be finalised to elect a new Congress president, the party is hopeful that the elevation of Rahul Gandhi as president will take place in November.