Lok Sabha election 2019: ‘NDA will get over 300 seats’, says Nitin Gadkari

Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday said he was confident that the BJP and its allies would get over 300 Lok Sabha seats in the Lok Sabha elections.

“The BJP would get at least 270 seats in the coming elections alone while our Sena-BJP alliance in Maharashtra would get around 40 seats out of 48,” he said in an interview to Hindustan Times.

Gadkari who filed his nomination papers in Nagpur on Monday, had surprised seven-term MP, Vilas Muttemwar of the Congress in 2014 when he won the elections by a margin of 2, 86,828 votes. “I will win this election with five-lakh margin,” he claimed.

This time his main opponent is Nana Patole of the Congress.

Gadkari said the speculation about him being a prime ministerial candidate was a media creation and insisted that he was not in the race for the PM’s post.

He said that he could not understand how and where such “rumour” was generated as he never aspired for the post. “Neither had I talked about my wish or aspiration for the post in private or public in my over three-and-a-half decade career,” he pointed out.

“I am happy with my present position and have no ambition to become the Prime Minister of the country. Whatever role the party entrusts me I always happy to serve it,” he clarified.

He said he plans to set up a Bio-Aviation Fuel Hub and a massive World Agriculture Convention Centre on the outskirts of Nagpur if he wins the election.

He said his government has left no stone unturned in developing the State’s second capital into a world class smart city and the region has been developed as Tiger Capital and tourists are being attracted which is boosting the tourism revenue.

Listing his achievements, he said that the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Law University and Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) were set up during his stint in the city and the government was planning to make Nagpur as an educational hub too.

He said the Multi-Modal International Passenger and Cargo Hub, popularly known as MIHAN has provided jobs to 25,000 youths. Big companies, like Patanjali, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, and other IT companies are also providing jobs to educated youths, the minister said.

He said there will be more thrust on providing employment opportunities to youth in the second term of NDA.

“We had already created several opportunities for the youth by developing sea ports and waterways transport across the country,” Gadkari said. “Paradeep, Goa, Mumbai, Haldia and other ports have provided direct and indirect employment opportunities to local youth.”

These ports were also providing ample scope for tourism and since tourism is a big industry and requires manpower, there would be no dearth of job opportunities in future, he said.