Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said he had received offers to become prime minister “multiple times” before and after Lok Sabha polls.
Gadkari spoke at the India Today conclave when asked whether he could share more about his earlier comment regarding an opposition party leader who had offered support if he was willing to assume the role of Prime Minister.
“I have received such an offer multiple times, even before the (Lok Sabha) election and afterwards,” he said.
When the interviewers sought to know if Gadkari had received offers to become PM after the Lok Sabha results in June, the senior BJP leader evaded the query and said he was leaving it to the mediapersons to decipher.
“I will not compromise with my ideology. There was no question of accepting the offer. It is not my aim to become prime minister. I am living my ideology with my conviction,” he asserted.
Earlier on 15 September, Gadkari was speaking at an event where our senior journalists were conferred the Anilkumar Award for Excellence in Journalism 2023-24 at a function in Nagpur, where he said that an opposition leader once offered to back him if he wanted to run for the Prime Minister’s position. “To become the prime minister is not the aim in my life. I am loyal to my conviction and my organisation, and I am not going to compromise for any post because my conviction is foremost for me.”
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Reacting to Gadkari’s statement, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi had stated that the INDIA bloc has many capable leaders who are fit to lead the country. Chaturvedi also suggested that Gadkari was using the opposition as an excuse to show his own desire to become the prime minister. “Nitin Gadkari ji is expressing his heartfelt desire to be on the top chair, using the excuse of opposition parties he is sending a message to Modiji. INDIA alliance has very capable leaders who can lead the country, wouldn’t want to borrow one from BJP. Well played Nitin ji,” Chaturvedi posted on social media platform X.
