Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the Bharatiya Janata Party has been a different kind of party and that is why it has repeatedly won the trust of voters. However, he warned that the BJP should not repeat the mistakes made by the Congress in the past, which led to it exiting power.
“If we continue to do what the Congress used to do, then their exit and our entry will be of no use,” Nitin Gadkari was quoted as saying by news agency PTI on Friday, more than a month after the saffron party failed to secure a majority on its own in the Lok Sabha elections.
At an executive meeting of the Goa BJP near Panaji attended by party state unit president Sadanand Tanavade and Chief Minister Pramod Sawant among other leaders, Nitin Gadkari, in his 40-minute-long address, recalled his mentor and former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani’s statement that “the BJP is a different party,” PTI reported.
“Advaniji used to say that we are a different party. We have to understand how different we are from other parties,” the Union minister and former BJP president said at the event.
The BJP MP from Nagpur said people had elected the party because of the Congress’s mistakes and warned that his party should not make the same mistakes.
“If we make the same mistakes, then there will be no point in their exit and our entry,” Gadkari said, adding that “that is why, in the days to come, party cadres must know that politics is an instrument to bring about social and economic reforms.”
Gadkari also stressed, “We (BJP) have to create a corruption-free country and for that we must have a plan in place.”
Gadkari: Caste issues should be avoided for politics
Referring to Maharashtra, the BJP leader said there is a tendency to play caste-based politics (jativadi rajkaran) in the state. “I have decided not to follow this trend. I have told people that I will not participate in caste-based politics (jaat-paat). Jo karega jaat ki baat, usko padegi kaske laath (anyone who talks about caste will get a hard kick),” warned Gadkari. Gadkari said a person is known by the values he possesses and not by his caste.
Mahayuti’s big win in Maharashtra MLC elections
Gadkari’s statement comes on a day when the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra (which includes Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s NCP and the BJP) bounced back from a disappointing general election by securing a significant victory in the MLC elections.
The BJP fielded five candidates, including Pankaja Munde, daughter of late leader Gopinath Munde, and all five won. The Shinde Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP nominated two candidates each, and all four emerged victorious.
In a message to Goa BJP cadres, Gadkari urged them to visit all constituencies and strengthen the organisation so that the party can retain power after the 2027 assembly elections.
