In a major organizational rejig, the BJP on Wednesday dropped Gadkari and Shivraj Singh Chouhan from its highest decision-making body.
Nitin Gadkari paid the price for speaking the truth, Congress alleged on Thursday as it floated conspiracy theories with respect to the removal of the minister from the BJP's Parliamentary Board. The party tweeted a creative video with a caption that claimed Gadkari had emerged as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rival within the party. "Whoever is the Prime Minister's rival would be shown the door. This is what happened with Nitin Gadkari," Congress tweeted from its official handle.
In a major organisational rejig, the BJP on Wednesday dropped Gadkari and Shivraj Singh Chouhan from its highest decision-making body. Karnataka Chief Minister and Lingayat strongman B S Yediyurappa, Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal, former IPS officer Iqbal Singh Lalpura, former Lok Sabha MP Satyanarayan Jatiya, BJP National OBC Morcha president K Lakshman and national secretary Sudha Yadav were included in the panel.
In the video, Congress claimed that Nitin Gadkari had been victimised for speaking the truth. It blamed the minister's recent remark that nowadays the sole purpose of politics is to capture power, for the BJP's action against him. "Was he punished for speaking the truth?" the party said in the video.
Last month, Gadkari said that during the time of Mahatma Gandhi, politics was a part of social movement, nation-building and development but nowadays it is about staying in power.
Congress saw the remark as a slight against the BJP government. Jairam Ramesh, referring to Rajnath Singh's remark that he would not criticise Jawaharlal Nehru, later tweeted in Hindi: 'First Rajnath Singh, now Nitin Gadkari. Is there a change in the air?'
Gadkari is billed by the media as the best-performing minister in the Modi cabinet.
NCP leader Clyde Crasto said on Thursday that Gadkari was downsized by the BJP as his stature had grown leaps and bounds.
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 "Nitin Gadkari was removed from BJP's parliamentary board on Wednesday (File)")
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