Mumbai: Union minister Nitin Gadkari, who was dropped from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) parliamentary board last week, attributed the party’s rise to power under Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the efforts of previous leaders such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani.
Speaking at an event of the Lakshmanrao Mankar Smruti Sanstha, an educational institution in Nagpur Sunday, Gadkari said, “Atal ji, Advani ji, Deendayal Upadhyay ji, several other karyakartas worked so hard that today we have risen to power under Modi ji‘s leadership at the Centre and in many states.”
नागपूर येथे कै. लक्ष्मणराव मानकर स्मृती संस्था द्वारा आयोजित कार्यक्रमातून लाईव्ह https://t.co/gGwfvdAHI9
— Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) August 21, 2022
Addressing the gathering, the member of Parliament (MP) from Nagpur, who holds the road transport and highways portfolio in the union government, quoted Vajpayee’s words at an event in Bandra in Mumbai many years ago when “the party’s condition was poor”.
“Atal ji got up for his speech and he said ‘I can see that the sun is setting’,” Gadkari recalled.
Gadkari remembered Vajpayee, who became PM in 1998, as saying, “Andhera chatega, sooraj niklega, aur kamal khilega (The darkness will fade, the sun will rise and the lotus will bloom).”
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The rise of BJP
Referring to the former Indian Prime Minister’s words, Gadkari said, “When he was saying this, everyone was convinced that maybe today we are in a bad condition, but that day will come.”
The union minister added that the efforts of karyakartas such as Vajpayee, Advani, and Upadhyay have helped the BJP see the power it is enjoying today.
The former BJP national president was last week dropped from the party’s parliamentary board, its top decision making body. The move came as a surprise as former BJP national presidents usually have a place in the party’s apex body.
Last month, speaking at another private event in Nagpur, Gadkari had said that now politics has become “100 per cent about power play” rather than an instrument of social or developmental change.
He had added that sometimes he thinks about quitting politics and that there are many more worthwhile things to do in life.
(This copy has been updated.)
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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