Nitin Gadkari to The Economist : I don’t aspire to be PM; no one in BJP will ask me

Union Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Nitin Gadkari has said he does not aspire to become the prime minister of India. Gadkari, the minister of Road Transport and Highways in PM Narendra Modi’s cabinet, said that no one in the saffron party would ask him to take the top job in the future.

In a recent interview with the London-based weekly, The Economist, Gadkari, is referred to as one of the most popular and controversial cabinet ministers in the Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

“When he became the youngest-ever leader of the BJP in 2009, he was hailed as a rising star, only to be ousted four years later because of a tax scandal,” read the piece.

Later cleared of wrongdoing, he rebuilt his reputation as a member of PM Modi‘s cabinet, overseeing a huge expansion of India’s highways. According to The Economist, Gadkari was ‘removed’ from the BJP’s parliamentary board in 2022 amid rumours of tensions with the prime minister.

“Now he is one of the candidates to succeed Modi,” it says, and his chances may have improved with American prosecutors’ allegations against Gautam Adani, Modi’s closest business ally.

Even before those charges became public, Gadkari, The Economist writes, had raised his profile with several controversial public remarks. Some of these remarks were widely seen as oblique criticism of Modi.

“No one is perfect and no one can claim he is perfect,” Gadkari, 67, said in the interview.

The BJP lost the majority in Lok Sabha for the first time since 2014 in the 2024 general elections. Gadkari attributed this to the opposition falsely promoting that Modi wanted to change India’s secular constitution.

Tolerance integral to India’s political system

But, he said, the BJP erred too, and it needed to communicate better and focus on development, not identity.

“We need to establish a good atmosphere between the parties and between people who have different types of ideology,” he said in the interview.

In September, Gadkari said that the biggest test of democracy is that the king tolerates the strongest opinion against him. The assertion was widely seen directed at PM Modi.

“I am not talking about any person or leader,” Gadkari told The Economist, adding that tolerance and respect are integral to India’s political system. “It doesn’t mean that we are enemies if we are in opposition,” Gadkari said. 

“That is the culture of democracy.”

The Economist writes that Modi’s position is not immediately under threat and that opinion polls suggest that Home Minister Amit Shah is the frontrunner. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is in second place, followed by Gadkari. “But Mr Modi’s successor will be decided by the upper ranks of the BJP and the RSS, not by opinion polls,” the piece reads. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is the ideological mentor of the BJP.

Foreign officials see Gadkari as the BJP’s moderate face and by business leaders as a champion of public-private partnership in infrastructure, The Economist wrote

He is liked by some opposition leaders, which helps in coalition building. And his popularity in Maharashtra, including among Muslims, has helped BJP keep control of Nagpur, the Lok Sabha seat that he represents since 2014. His other strength is his relationship with the RSS, headquartered in Nagpur, it said.

In September, Gadkari alleged that an opposition leader offered to make him prime minister if he defected before the election.

When asked if he wants the top job one day, Gadkari said, “I am here, happy. I am doing my work. I do not have any aspiration or ambition to become prime minister.”

“No one is going to ask me, so no question arises,” Gadkari responds to a question about whether the BJP will ask him to be the prime minister.