Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been a different kind of party, but warned that the party should not repeat the mistakes made by the Congress in the past, which led to its exit from power. He added that if the BJP continues to do what the Congress did, there is no point in them coming in and out of power.
“If we continue to do what the Congress used to do, then there will be no point in their exit and our entry,” Gadkari stressed in comments that came more than a month after the BJP failed to secure a majority on its own in the Lok Sabha elections.
BJP leader Nitin Gadkari said this while addressing a party meeting near Panaji, which was attended by party state unit president Sadanand Tanavade and Chief Minister Pramod Sawant among other leaders. He also recalled his mentor and former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani’s statement that “the BJP is a different party.”
ALSO READ: RSS defamation case: Rahul Gandhi gets relief as Bombay High Court overturns Maharashtra court order
“Advaniji used to say that we are a different party. We have to understand how different we are from other parties,” the former BJP president said.
The Lok Sabha MP from Nagpur said people had elected the BJP 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.
“Therefore, in the coming days, party cadres must know that politics is an instrument to achieve social and economic reforms,” he said.
Gadkari stressed that “We (BJP) have to create a corruption-free country and for that we must have a plan in place.”
The senior party leader referred to politics in neighbouring Maharashta and argued that in his home state there is a tendency to play politics on caste lines (jativadi rajkaran).
ALSO READ: ‘The disease of unemployment…’: Rahul Gandhi hits out at BJP over viral Gujarat job interview video
“I have decided not to follow this trend. I have told people that I will not get involved 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),” he warned.
Gadkari said that a person is known by the values he possesses, not by his caste. In a message to the 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.
