Nitin Gadkari, a veteran of the BJP and a union minister, claimed that when a politician once asked him to join the Congress, he declined, saying that he would rather commit suicide by falling into a well.
Nitin Gadkari added that the BJP government has accomplished twice as much in the nation’s development in the past nine years as it did during the 60 years of the Congress’ reign.
On Friday, Mr. Gadkari spoke to a crowd in Bhandara, Maharashtra, to commemorate the nine-year anniversary of the Narendra Modi administration. He reminisced his early days as a BJP employee and discussed the party’s history.
He also recalled the deal that the late Shrikant Jichkar, a senior in the Congress, had offered.
‘You are a very good party worker and leader, and if you join the Congress, you will have a brilliant future,’ Jichkar once told me. But I told him that I have more faith in the BJP and its principles than I do the Congress, and that I would rather jump into a well than join it,” Mr. Gadkari added.
As a young man working for the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the RSS’s student branch, he credited the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh with instilling principles in him.
The minister claimed that since the Congress’ founding, the party had experienced numerous splits.
“We must remember the democratic past of our nation. To improve the future, we must take lessons from the past. The Congress adopted the slogan “Garibi Hatao” (eradicate poverty) during its 60 years in power, but opened a number of educational institutions for private gain, he claimed.
PM Modi’s goal of making India an economic giant received accolades from Mr. Gadkari. “The future of the country is very bright,” he declared.
“The BJP government has done twice as much work in the last nine years as the Congress could not do in the 60 years of its rule,” he remarked.
The Union minister added that he had promised the people of Uttar Pradesh that their roads will resemble those in the US by the end of 2024 while he was in the state a few days earlier.
