Click to play videoPilibhit (UP): Muslims in Pilibhit are eager to know the latest on Varun Gandhi. While there is silent anger brimming in the community, there is also a strong sense of disbelief that the great grandson of Nehru could stoop so low for a few extra votes.
“He used to come to our place with his mother when he was a kid and now suddenly we are strangers to him,” says a resident Mohammed Rehaan.
A historical town on the Nepal border, Pilibhit has a long history of communal tension. But it is also a town renowned for its culture where Hindus and Muslims pray together at Sufi shrines and dargahs.
Clearly Varun Gandhi's rally hit the religious fault-lines in the city. After all it's been 20 years that Maneka Gandhi will not be contesting from Pilibhit.
Unlike her son, the Gandhi bahu never tried to play the religious angle, instead making news mostly on issues concerning the environment.
But the BJP in Pilibhit is eager to cash in on the new blood.
“He’s fresh blood. He will do what he says,” says BJP district chief, Yogendra Singh Gangwar.
While there are some who believe that once Varun wins the elections, he will shed his naivete, there are others who say that Varun's comments have already done the damage in Pilibhit.
Even as Varun Gandhi's fate hangs, Pilibhit remains a town divided and a little embarrassed.
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