The New Indian Express Editorial Director Prabhu Chawla interviewed former BJP President and Delhi poll in charge Nitin Gadkari during Teekhi Baat on IBN7. Excerpts:
You lost seats (in Delhi) due to factionalism in the party.
There was an undercurrent this time and people voted for AAP.
Didn’t you have an idea?
I agree we hadn’t thought they would garner so many votes. The reason for this was Anna Hazare’s andolan at Ramlila Maidan in the New Delhi area. In outer Delhi we have won, but in New Delhi people felt that all parties are corrupt.
But you supported it when you were Party President.
I am from Maharasthra and when the question was of Annaji’s life, we supported him. But I think supporting them was a political mistake. Because they levelled false allegations against me too. Not one allegation made by Kejriwal proved to be true. We supported them with good intentions, but they are doing a Maoist right-wing kind of work.
You couldn’t build a leader in Delhi.
No, Dr Harshvarhan is a strong leader. He won by 37,000 votes. He has been accepted by people of Delhi. And our party’s leadership of Narendra Modi has been accepted by the people.
Do you feel you would have lost MP, Rajasthan, if Modi had not campaigned there?
BJP is a party of workers and has collective leadership. Leadership is our strength even today. Advaniji, Rajnath Singh, Arunji, Sushmaji are our strength. And among us Narendra Modi is the most capable and popular leader and so we elected him as our PM candidate.
On election day, you put up a big picture of Modi and a small picture of Harshvardhan in papers. You must have a strategy behind it.
He is our PM candidate and Harshvardhanji is our candidate for chief minister’s post.
In MP, why didn’t you have as big photos of Modi?
Decisions were taken in Delhi and Bhopal, one person did not decide it.
You know about emphasis, you are a strategist.
True, we wanted to tell people that we would form government under the leadership of Narendra Modi. And to make his leadership strong make Harshvardhan win in Delhi.