Varun Gandhi Wiki, Age, Wife, Family, Biography & More

Varun Gandhi is an Indian politician who belongs to the Nehru-Gandhi Family. He is a member of Bharatiya Janata Party and the Member of Lok Sabha from the Philibhit constituency.

Wiki/Biography

Varun Gandhi was born as ‘Feroze Varun Gandhi’ on 13 March 1980 (age 39 years; as in 2019) in Delhi. His zodiac sign is Pisces.

Varun did his schooling from Rishi Valley School, Modern School C.P. New Delhi, and then from the British School, New Delhi. He obtained his BSc in Economics (Hons.) degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science, which he gained through distance-learning provision.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 9″

Weight (approx.): 75 ”

Eye colour: Black

Hair Colour: Black

Family, Caste & Wife

Varun Gandhi belongs to the Nehru-Gandhi family. His father, Sanjay Gandhi was a politician.

His mother, Maneka Gandhi is an environmentalist and politician.

His grandmother, Late Indira Gandhi (first woman Prime Minister of India) and his grandfather, Feroze Gandhi (journalist) were both politicians.

His great grandfather, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru was a freedom fighter and the first Prime Minister of Independent India.

His great grandmother, Kamala Nehru was also a freedom fighter.

His uncle, Late Rajiv Gandhi was a politician and the Prime Minister of India (1984-89).

Varun’s aunt, Sonia Gandhi is also a politician, who served as the President of the Indian National Congress (INC) from 14 March 1998 to 16 December 2017.

Rahul Gandhi (politician) and Priyanka Gandhi (politician) are his cousins.

He got married to Yamini Roy Chowdhury, who is a graphic designer, and the couple has a daughter named Anasuya Gandhi.

He had one more daughter named Aadya Priyadarshini, who died at the age of 4 months.

Career

Varun Gandhi formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2004 along with his mother, Maneka Gandhi. In the 2009 General Elections, Varun fought from the Pilibhit constituency. He won by 419,539 votes and defeated his nearest contending candidate, V.M. Singh, by a margin of 281,501 votes. It was the most significant victory by the margin in the Gandhi Family. In 2013, Rajnath Singh who was the head of the BJP back then had appointed Varun as the General Secretary of the BJP. He became the youngest ever General Secretary of the party. In the 2014 General Elections, Varun contested from Sultanpur constituency and defeated Amrita Singh. In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, he contested from the Pilibhit Constituency and won.

Literary Works

Varun Gandhi writes articles and policies for the newspapers and magazines like The Times of India, The Hindustan Times, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Asian Age, The Hindu, Outlook. He also writes columns for Malayala Manorama, Lokmat, Hindustan Times, Rajasthan Patrika, Punjab Kesari, Amar Ujala, Sandesh, Bartaman, Sakshi, and many other.

Varun wrote his first volume of poems, ‘The Otherness of Self’ in 2000.

In 2018, he released his book on Indian rural economy titled “A Rural Manifesto: Realizing India’s Future Through Her Villages.”

Controversies

• During his election campaign in Pilibhit in the 2009 Lok Sabha Elections, he made a provocative speech against Muslims. A case was filed against him. He was arrested and had to stay behind bars for 20 days.

• On 29 March 2009, Uttar Pradesh booked Varun Gandhi under National Security Act for inciting communal tension in India.

• While filing his petition to nullify the hate speech case against him at the Allahabad High Court in 2009, he attracted another controversy regarding his academic certificates; as in his petition, he had mentioned that he was a graduate from LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science) and did his masters from SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies). But the university denied his claim of any such degree taken by him and clarified that he had gained his degree (BSc in Economic) in LSE through the long-distance learning provision, and he had only enrolled himself for SOAS (MSc in Sociology) but never completed the degree.

• In 2015, former IPL chief, Lalit Modi, who had been sacked by the Enforcement Directorate on charges of money laundering, said that Varun Gandhi had met him in London a few years ago and told him (Lalit) that Varun would settle everything with his aunt, Sonia Gandhi. He even asked Varun to clarify whether he had been in his house or not. Sonia Gandhi had to come forward to deny Lalit’s allegations.

• In 2016, arms dealer and manufacturer, Abhishek Verma alleged that Varun Gandhi had leaked defence secrets to him. However, Varun denied the allegations. Later, Abhishek also claimed that all the reports were fabricated.

Net Worth

His net worth is approximately Rs. 60 Crore (as in 2019).

Favourite Things

• Author(s): Ruben Banerjee, Rana Safvi

• Book(s): ‘The Nobel Lecture’ by Bob Dylan, ‘Naveen Patnaik’ by Ruben Banerjee, ‘City Of My Heart’ by Rana Safvi, ‘Laxminama: Monks, Merchants, Money and Mantra’ by Anshuman Tiwari, ‘Mumbai Fables’ by Gyan Prakash

Facts

• Varun’s father, Sanjay Gandhi died in a plane crash when Varun was three months old.

• Varun was introduced to politics by his mother during the 1999 elections campaigning.

• His second volume of poems, titled “Stillness” was published by HarperCollins in April 2015. The book became the bestselling non-fiction book, selling over 10,000 copies in the first two days of its release.

• In 2011, Varun offered his official residence to Anna Hazare to hold his fast but was denied by the government. When Anna was jailed, Varun offered to table the Jan Lokpal Bill in the parliament. He also went to Ramleela Maidan to support the cause of Anna Hazare.

• In 2011, his daughter Aadya Priyadarshini, who he named after his grandmother Indira Priyadarshini, died at the age of 4 months. Reportedly, the incident traumatised Varun to the extent that he took a break from politics for almost two months.

• He started a company called ‘Rajdhani,’ which is an analytics company for commodity training.

• In 2015, he vowed that he would donate his salary as an MP to the family of those farmers who had been forced to end their lives because of agrarian crisis.