UP polls: Nitin Gadkari praises Sanjay Joshi, Narendra Modi's bête noire

NEW DELHI:In what could widen the rift between BJP president Nitin Gadkari and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, the party chief on Friday praised Sanjay Joshi, the chief minister’s bête noire, for his role in the Uttar Pradesh elections.

“In the last election in Uttar Pradesh our party’s position was not good. A lot of our people left the party. We needed someone who could instill some life to the party.

Our leaders and workers have put in every effort. Sanjay Joshi’s role has been good. Uma Bharati’s induction has also benefited the party,” Gadkari said during an interaction with women journalists in New Delhi.

Asked if Joshi would be given a bigger role in the party, Gadkari repeated that he had done “good work” but was not looking for a title. “He doesn’t expect any designation. He is prepared to do whatever work he is given ,” the party president said. The remarks are unlikely to go down well with Modi.

Sanjay Joshi was one of the reasons the Gujarat chief minister stayed away from Uttar Pradesh. Gadkari, who has been evasive on Modi’s absence from the campaign, ducked questions on him. “Modi is very busy in Gujarat,” he said.

When asked if a good performance by BJP in the assembly elections would send a message that Modi was dispensable, Gadkari left it vague: “Everybody is working hard.”

He, however, minced no words in his disapproval of party MP Varun Gandhi , whose campaign was restricted to Pilibhit. Gandhi had said there were 55 contenders for the chief minister's post in BJP and that he had reason not to believe that the Samajwadi Party will be the largest gainer.

To his remarks , Gadkari said “this was wrong though he later clarified. There is concern in the party about such statements . I have tried to put a stop to these things and to a certain extent it has reduced… Which is why you get less stories now.” Asked if the party was planning to take any action against Gandhi, he said the party has taken cognisance of his remark.

Though Gadkari refused to speculate on the possible outcome of the assembly elections, he said as far as its impact on the Centre’s stability was concerned, it was being disturbed by its own partners and not the Opposition . On the sticky question of who would be PM, he maintained that the party would take a decision at the appropriate time.

He did not specify if it would project a candidate for the Lok Sabha election or decide later. “We all have nice faces,” is all he would say. Gadkari, who believes that politics is an instrument for socio-economic change, said he was “neither a socialist , nor a communist or a capitalist”.

On getting a second term as party president, he said he had not asked for it and that he was prepared to take up any task the party offered. “Even if it is the post of vice-president . I will do whatever task I am given with sincerity. I have a militant strain in my DNA,” he said.

To a question if the party, which had reinducted Uma Bharati, planned to readmit Govindacharya, Gadkari said “he is a learned man. I go to him for advise. I have suggested this to him but he says he will work from outside .” On the feud within the party in Karnataka, he said the state government was performing well on all fronts the party was trying to rectify the problems within.