Tuesday, May 13, 2014
New Delhi: Former BJP president Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday denied reports that he was eyeing a comeback as national president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Gadkari had stepped down from the post in January last year after controversy broke over questionable financial dealings of one of his companies Purti Group.
Gadkari was virtually forced to pull out for a second three-year term as the BJP president facing rebellion as many party leaders including Lal Krishna Advani felt the party could not go to polls with a leader accused of corruption at the helm.
Gadkari got a shot in the arm as the Maharashtra Income Tax Department has given him a clean chit.
“I have been the BJP president for three years. I have no ambition to become the BJP president again,” Gadkari said on Tuesday after getting snubbed by BJP’s parent organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which had surprised everyone by handpicking a relatively unknown Gadkari to head party in December 2009.
Gadkari had timed his comeback bid to coincide with formation of the next government. BJP has already started informal discussions in this regard after exit poll results suggested that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could be headed to get the majority once results of the just concluded general elections are declared on Friday.
With the incumbent BJP president Rajnath Singh making it clear that he would prefer not to join the new government and continue working for the party, RSS had little option but to ask Gadkari to keep his ambitions aside.
According to Gadkari, the top priority of the BJP right now is to form the government under Narendra Modi and broadly indicated that he may not be averse to becoming a senior minister in the new government.
“Modi will decide what kind of role he will have for leaders. Party president Rajnath Singh will also decide,” Gadkari, a former Maharashtra minister said.
Gadkari contested his first national elections from his hometown Nagpur and is hopeful of emerging victorious. He called on Modi on Monday hours within last phase of polling ended. He called on BJP patriarch Advani and his successor Rajnath Singh on Tuesday in New Delhi apparently to explore his chances of returning as the BJP president.
BJP had its first post-poll meeting on Tuesday to take stock of the emerging situation and discuss the new council of ministers. The party officially said that any exercise towards formation of the new government would start only after results are declared. However, it is certain that even in the event of BJP getting the majority on its own, it would accommodate its pre-poll allies in the new council of ministers. Only the party may not offer key ministries like home, foreign affairs, finance and defence to allies.
The party also has to name a replacement for Modi as the Gujarat chief minister. BJP on Tuesday announced that its apex decision-making body parliamentary board would name the new Gujarat chief minister by May 20, it is clear that the party will go with Modi’s choice Anandi Patel to replace him.
Anandi Patel is senior most minister in Gujarat and virtually running the show ever since Modi was named in September last year as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. She is a minister since 1998 and is one of the longest serving woman lawmakers of the state.
By Ajay Jha ?Correspondent
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