Gadkari exudes confidence over NDA win
Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari filed his nomination papers for Nagpur Lok Sabha seat on Monday. He was accompanied by Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis and others.
The NDA will get 300 plus seats, a confident Gadkari, who otherwise is known as ‘Roadkari’ with massive road construction activities undertaken by his ministry in the country, said.
Gadkari filed his nomination from Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency on Monday in presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis, Energy Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule and senior leader Datta Meghe. Thousands of his supporters gathered at Samvidhan Square shouting slogans “Nitinji tum aage badho, ham tumhare saath hain”.
Gadkari was the first BJP leader to win the Nagpur Lok Sabha seat in 2014 with a margin of 2.86 lakh votes against seven times Congress MP Vilas Muttemwar. “This time I will win the election with over five lakh vote margin”, he said with confidence.
Predicting that the BJP alone would repeat its 2014 performance and the NDA will cross 300-mark, Gadkari said that in Maharashtra the BJP-Shiv Sena combine would bag 40 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats. In 2014 the BJP-SS combine had won similar number of seats.
This time Gadkari will be facing Nana Patole of Congress in Nagpur. Patole, who was essentially a Congressman, had defected to BJP and woon from Bhandara as its candidate in 2014. Later he went back to Congress due to certain differences with the BJP leadership and now the party has fielded him against Gadkari. Political observers feel that Patole is not a match for Gadkari and that by fielding him in Nagpur the Congress has given a virtual walkover to Gadkari in 2019 elections.
Pooh-poohing the speculations about him being a candidate for prime minister’s post, Gadkari said that it was solely a media creation and he was never in the race for the top post. “It was a rumor generated by certain vested interests, he said adding that he was happy as a surface transport minister and has no ambition of becoming prime minister.
Our government has taken all the steps to develop Nagpur as a world class city and as Tiger Capital of India to attract tourists from all over the world. He said that with his efforts Nagpur today boasts in having prestigious institutions like the AIIMS, IIM, Law University, IIIT and the like. The MIHAN has provided jobs to over 25000 youths. Big entrepreneurs like Patanjali, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, HCL and other IT Companies have set up their units in MIHAN and are providing jobs to local educated youths, Gadkari said.