Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said on being advised to join the Congress, he had once replied to his friend that he would rather “jump into a well”.
Recalling the incident while addressing a gathering of entrepreneurs in Maharashtra's Nagpur, the minister, known for his straightforward and no-twisted statements, said, “My friend once told me that 'you are a good person'. 'You have a good political future, but you are in the wrong party. You should join the Congress'. I said, 'I'd rather jump into a well rather than join the Congress party because I don't like the ideology of the Congress party'. He said that 'your party has no future'.”
Gadkari added that human relationship is the “biggest strength” of any business, politics and social work; hence one should not use and throw.
His statements come days after he was dropped from the BJP Parliamentary Board, a top decision-making body in the saffron camp, along with Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was brought on board the BJP's central election committee along with a few other leaders.
During the address on Saturday, Gadkari quoted a line from the biography of former US president Richard Nixon. “A man is not finished when he is defeated but is finished when he quits.”
Maharashtra BJP vice-president Madhav Bhandari, however, said there is no reason to link Gadkari's remarks with the parliamentary board decision of the BJP.