Orange man in saffron family

Nitin gadkari steps into national politics for the first time in his 30-year career. The Vikas Purush of Maharashtra will need all his savvy to revive the fortunes of BJP, writes Pradip Kumar Maitra.

A board outside Nitin Gadkari’s office in Nagpur’s Mahal area right next to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters reads: “I love those who can manage to get things done.” It probably sums up the work ethic of the 52-year-old who was anointed president of the Bharatiya Janata Party last week.

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In a party known for getting into paroxysms over epithets, Gadkari was known as Vikas Purush (Man of Progress) in the late 1990s when he was minister of public works in Maharashtra. He earned it after starting work on the Mumbai-Pune expressway and 55 flyovers in Mumbai and 10 in Nagpur.

A bureaucrat who worked with him says on the condition of anonymity, “He used to tell officers, ‘Never say no to any public interest project, even if it’s not in the rulebook.’ He wanted to know how it could be done instead.” Gadkari himself says, “Politics must never come in the way of development.”

He never fails to make it clear that he means business. But the business of national politics is something Gadkari has never faced in his 30-year career as a politician.

Son of the soil

Gadkari is an ‘orange man’ in the saffron parivar. He is from the Malgujar family, which owns a 40-acre farm in Dhapewada, 20 km outside Nagpur. The oranges grown here are mostly exported through his company, Ketaki Overseas Trading, to many parts of the world including the Gulf.

A 26-megawatt power plant he started — it sells its entire generation to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Energy — is run as a cooperative. So, though it generates profit of Rs 7 crore a month, Gadkari says, “I have told my people to just keep a couple of lakhs for my family; the rest should be used for the welfare of locals.”

Vijay Kewalramani, in partnership with whom Gadkari started the Neelam Furniture Store in Nagpur in the 1980s (in which Gadkari no longer holds a stake), says, “He is a hardcore businessman and is generous — that’s what has led him to his present position, whether in business or politics.” Before the 2008 state elections, Gadkari declared assets worth Rs 4.36 crore.

Right from birth

Gadkari was born into a saffron family — his father was a member of the RSS, as was he in his youth. But his political career began in earnest as member of the BJP’s student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), in 1977.

He contested the Assembly elections from West Nagpur in 1985 and lost. He was, however, elected to the state legislative council from the ‘graduate constituency’ in 1989. Gadkari has been leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra legislative council. Since 2004 he has been the state party chief.

Given that his party suffered an embarrassing defeat in the 2009 Assembly elections, there were many within the BJP who were hostile to his elevation to the party’s top national post. One of the detractors, former deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde who has refused to work as general secretary under Gadkari, may be accommodated as the head of the parliamentary public accounts committee.

But Gadkari’s political backbone is propped by the RSS, who see in him a dynamic leader who can regroup the cadres. The RSS circulated a brief list of Gadkari’s ‘achievements’ within BJP’s core group to pre-empt resentments and justify his nomination.

Despite his closeness to the RSS, Gadkari is known as a ‘soft-liner’. He brought many Muslim leaders into the BJP fold and is seen as close to several leaders from the Congress and NCP. On the national stage, that will be an asset.

Nagpur to Delhi

Son of a farmer, the Deshastha Brahmin prefers to eat at home when in Nagpur, says wife Kanchan. Elder son Nikhil, 24, is involved with the mini power plant, while Sarang, 20, and Ketaki, 18, are still in college.

What about the shift to Delhi? “I’ll resign from the state legislature, but will not go to the Rajya Sabha for at least three years,” says Gadkari.

As the BJP president, he’ll get a bungalow in Lutyens’ Delhi. That is going to be his first home in the city.