Varun Gandhi marriage minus his Gandhi cousins

Feroze Varun Gandhi, BJP’s youth leader and Pilibhit MP, got married to graphic designer Yamini Roy Chowdhury at a no- frills early morning ceremony attended by an intimate circle of 25 close relatives, minus his cousins — Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi.

Such was the simplicity of the two- hourlong ceremony that the only indulgence allowed was the shehnai playing in the background — and the sun- dappled blanket of 24,000 bright orange marigolds and red roses that had transformed the Shri Kashi Kamakotishwar temple on the famous Hanuman Ghat in Varanasi.

Exactly a week before he turns 31, a visibly slimmer Varun wore an offwhite kurta with a white dhoti at the ceremony, which was blessed by the Shankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, Swami Jayendra Saraswati.


The 28- year- old bride wore a rose pink banarasi brocade sari that Indira Gandhi had gifted to Varun’s mother, BJP’s Aonla MP Maneka Gandhi, when she got married to Sanjay Gandhi in 1974.

Maneka also wore a sari with a historical legacy — it is made with a 71- year- old pink khadi yarn woven by Jawahar Lal Nehru in prison in 1940. Throughout the ceremony, Yamini kept asking the priest to translate the shlokas . The temple and the lane leading up to it had been decked up like a luminous bride, and cordoned off since 5 am to keep away a throng of gawkers.

The place was teeming with security personnel drawn from the district police and the Provincial Armed Constabulary ( PAC), but that did not prevent shutterbugs and bystanders from mobbing each car that drove in.

In the morning, the city was abuzz with the rumour that Priyanka Gandhi was coming for the wedding, but she did not make her muchanticipated appearance. The wedding, for which the bride and the groom showed up at exactly 7.30, was attended by around 25 close relatives and friends. Maneka’s sister, Ambika Shukla, had come with her children.


The simplicity of the wedding was reflected not just in the decorations and the clothes, but also in the food that was served. After the ceremony, the guests were served prashad prepared in the temple kitchen — signature banarasi sweets such as malaiyu and geelauri , apart from poha and fruits, which the newlywed couple ate as well. Even the music was simple — and traditional.

Bismillah Khan’s son-in-law and disciple Ustad Ali Abbas played the shehnai along with his troupe in the temple compound. Soon after eating what was presumably breakfast, the Gandhis — Maneka and Varun — along with Yamini left the temple and were on their way back to Delhi.

Speaking to the media entourage after the ceremony, Maneka asked for blessings for the newlyweds. The family has cancelled the wedding reception in Delhi earlier slated for March 8, in deference to Varun’s maternal grandmother, Amteshwar Anand, who died on February 28.