Mr Varun Gandhi, please pay your Rs 38,000 phone bill

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has sent a letter to the Pilibhit District Election Officer seeking necessary action against Bharatiya Janata Party MP Varun Gandhi for not paying telephone dues of over Rs 38,000 outstanding against his official phone number.

The BSNL, in its letter dated March 30, said the telephone dues billed during Gandhi's 2009-2014 tenure as Pilibhit MP could not be realised despite several attempts.

The letter reads, "An amount of Rs 38,616.00 is lying outstanding against telephone number 05882-256525 provided for constituency office of Varun Gandhi, ex-MP Pilibhit during his previous term w.e.f 2009 to 2014."

The state telecom service provider has further noted in the letter: "After a long chain of correspondences made by the Lok Sabha secretariat, it has been intimated that the due amount might be pertaining to broadband services which is required to be paid by the MP himself."

Gandhi filed his nomination for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls from Pilibhit without obtaining a No Objection Letter from the BSNL district office, it stated.

As per rules, every candidate needs to submit NOCs from government departments along with their nomination papers to the Election Commission. The EC may cancel the nomination of a candidate on failure to comply with the law.

Gandhi was elected to the Parliament from Sultanpur parliamentary constituency in the 2014 national elections.