Press statement : Former BJP President, Shri Nitin Gadkari

A STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE OFFICE OF THE FORMER BJP PRESIDENT SHRI NITIN GADKARI ON APRIL 18, 2013

Our attention has been drawn to reports appearing in a section of the media on April 18, 2013 seeking to suggest that Shri Nitin Gadkari at a meeting with the Bihar Chief Minister Shri Nitish Kumar in July 2012 had assured him that the Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi would not be projected as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate.

In order to put the records straight, we have to state the following:

The Bihar Chief Minister Shri Nitish Kumar had met the then BJP President Shri Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi sometime in July 2012. The meeting had taken place at the residence of the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Shri Arun Jaitley. The three leaders had reviewed the political situation in the country and discussed the NDA strategy for the next general elections due in 2014.  Shri Nitish Kumar had raised the issue of the prospective NDA leader for the Lok Sabha polls. Both Shri Gadkari and Shri Jaitley had told Shri Kumar that the BJP had not taken a decision on projecting anyone as its prime ministerial candidate. The BJP leadership would discuss the issue at the appropriate time and certainly take all the NDA partners into confidence. On whether the BJP would project someone before the elections or elect the NDA leader after the polls, too, would be taken up by the party leadership at the appropriate time and a decision would be taken in consultation with the NDA allies.

Shri Gadkari and Shri Jaitley had not given any assurance to Shri Kumar that Shri Modi would not be projected as the prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections.

Vaibhav Dange
Executive Secretary to Shri Nitin Gadkari
M: +91 9910019804
April 18, 2013