Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (SR)
New Delhi, May 11: Denying the criticism on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) being a 'Modi-centric' party, union minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday during an interview to PTI at his residence in New Delhi said, "BJP neither became Atal (Atal Bihari Vajpayee) or Advaniji's (LK Advani) party in the past, nor can it ever be only Amit Shah or Narendra Modi's party."
He assured that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a party based on ideology and it can never be an ‘individual-centric’ party.
When asked whether the BJP has become 'Modi is BJP and BJP is Modi' on the lines of 'Indira is India and India is Indira' slogan given by then Congress president D K Barooah during emergency in 1976, he said, the party can never be 'individual-centric'.
However, he reasoned that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are complementary to each other and said, “Elections cannot be won if party is strong but its leader is weak ... same can be said if a leader is strong and the party is weak ... but yes, a popular leader does come at the forefront naturally.
"Opposition has tried to bring in poison of casteism and communalism in the polls to derail the BJP's development agenda, but I am sure people will be with us and we will form the government with full majority," Gadkari stressed while refusing the claims that BJP is fighting polls on nationalism instead of its work or achievement in the past five years.
"Nationalism is our soul. Good adminstration and development is our mission... Roti, kapda and makan (food, clothes and shelter) for the poor, the exploited and the backward in society is our ideal," Nitin Gadkari said.
Denying the claim that Pulwama attack was the result of intelligence failure, Gadkari said, "No country sees terror acts as a failure of intelligence ... it is a long battle. Such incidents have also happened in other countries, including the US, Germany and France. It is easy to call them intelligence failures ... intelligence is not a divine set up, but manual ... As far as discussions on it within the government is concerned, they are secret.”
Nitin Gadkari also claimed that the party will get more seats than the last (2014) Lok Sabha polls. "BJP will get more seats than the last polls and NDA constituents will also increase their seats, hence the party will form the government," he said.