Nagpur: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said that a political leader once offered to support him if he entered the race for the Prime Minister’s post, but he declined the offer, stating that he did not harbour such ambitions.
“I remember one incident… I won’t name anyone. That person said, ‘If you are going to become the Prime Minister, we will support you,'” Gadkari said at an event in Nagpur, without specifying when the conversation took place.
However, the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways stressed that becoming the Prime Minister was not a goal in his life.
“But I asked why should you support me, and why should I accept your support? Becoming the Prime Minister is not the aim of my life. I am loyal to my convictions and my organisation, and I am not going to compromise for any post because my convictions are most important to me,” he said.
Nitin Gadkari’s name emerged in discussion as a potential Prime Ministerial candidate during both the 2024 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. According to India Today’s Mood of the Nation survey conducted in February this year, ahead of the general elections, Gadkari ranked third as the leader best suited to succeed Narendra Modi as Prime Minister, following Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
When these discussions also surfaced in 2019, Gadkari dismissed them, stating that “India was in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s capable hands.”
“We are all behind him [PM Modi]. I am another worker in the fulfillment of his vision. Where does the question of me being a PM arise? I am not in the race to be PM. I don’t see this dream,” Gadkari said in March 2019.
Gadkari, who has won the Nagpur Lok Sabha seat three times, is a prominent figure in the BJP and enjoys strong support from the RSS. He is currently the longest-serving Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, having held the position for over ten years. He also served as BJP’s national president from 2009 to 2013.
