Is Nitin Gadkari Eyeing For PM Post In 2019 ? RSS Plan B ?

From the starting of the 2019, our upcoming general election is in news almost every day and it should be. We are going to choose fate of our great nation for the next 5 years so debates and dialogues are welcome. In between that we are hearing something which has attracted not only the opposition but the general public’s too. Roads and Transport Minister Mr. Nitin Gadkari or super performing minister is in news, though he is always in news for his decent work but this time for not so good reasons at least from his own party’s point of view. We know Mr. Gadkari is someone who speaks his mind and from last few weeks he has been more vocal and that too against his own party’s line as claimed by oppositions and media channels. BJP is having hard time to explain Mr. Gadkari’s recent statements to the public and media and it has become more difficult for party decode the real message of the minister.

Is he really trying to enlighten his own party or our sensible media & oppositions are reading too much in between the lines? Some media channels haven significantly focused on so called RSS’s ‘Plan B’ that is if not Modi then who? And who is here “Mr. Nitin Gadkari”. We will try to discuss this part too but before we should discuss the statements he made in past few months. We will try to explain these statements one by one from a layman’s point of view.

1. Mr. Gadkari said he likes speeches of Mr. Nehru. Some opposition leaders projected this as ongoing rift between Mr. Gadkari and PM Modi. PM Modi on several occasion has criticized our first PM of Independent India Mr. Nehru’s policies. Question here is, that is praising Mr. Nehru wrong?
   Our former PM Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee had praised Mr. Nehru on several occasions too, in fact people used to call him Nehru of the Right wing. Every sensible person will understand that it is not a crime to praise the first Prime Minister of our country so why opposition took it so seriously? Simply because it suits them, especially Indian National Congress. It is definitely not a sign of rift between two tall leaders of BJP. But opposition has seen an opportunity in it and they grabbed it.
2. He also said that “We were sure that BJP won’t come to the power and that is why all our leaders made tall promises to the country”. Now this was really damaging for BJP on several ground.

A. It represented BJP in a very negative way for the promises it made before elections and people were not expecting this from them. The statement which was given by Mr. Gadkari looked like an excuse for not fulfilling the promises BJP made and questioned their ability to function as a government. One the other hand, every single party makes tall promises in election but they do not fulfill their all promises after they win and here Mr. Gadkari honestly accepted it. His first part was not accurate, people had the idea that BJP will form the government and Mr. Modi will become the PM. It was very hard to digest that Mr. Nitin Gadkari said it because he was too closely involved in campaigning for his party in 2014 and mood of the nation was totally in their favor. People would have accepted them even if they had not made any big promises because public wanted to get rid of the Indian National Congress.

B. Opposition day and night trying to target the government on several issues and this was like an incentive without work for them. Earlier before Amit Shah also said that 15 lakh promise was political jumla (sentence without authenticity). It was like fuel to fire for oppositions and later Mr. Gadkari gave them another reason to encircle the BJP and the government. Mr. Gadkari could have avoided this uncalled controversy, it was a huge blow for BJP. H was with Nana Patekar when he said this and the mood of the event was light and in the flow he said it.

C. It created a sense of unease in public minds and in politics perception is everything.

3. He also said “Ache Din (Good days) will never come it was just an election slogan”. This was another blow to BJP and opposition really raised it powerfully. But after days when it was not settling down Mr. Gadkari himself clarified it. He said ‘it is a nature of humans to expect more and more, for e.g. if you have a cycle you will dream for motorcycle, if you have motorcycle you will dream for car and so on. So In this context I said it but opposition took it into another level’. Now though the clarification is good and it is a fact that human always ask for more but it surely did damage to the BJP.

4. He said he will not allot any land to the navy officer, they should go the Pakistan border. It brought heavy criticism of the government by oppositions, later he explained it why he said and he was not targeting navy rather only few officers who are approaching him for residential land in Mumbai. This controversy died out as soon as Mr. Gadkari gave the explanation. Surprisingly opposition dropped it from raising because they knew they are not succeeding in making any perception out of it for public.  Media as usual focused only on his one sentence rather than showing the whole context all day long. Whereas people did not see it as against the navy but only against high ranking officers in navy. It was actually blown out of the proportion.

5. After Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh loss, Mr. Gadkari said that leadership should take responsibility for the loss in elections and this was the statement which gave the air to the news of RSS “Plan B”. Plan B is that if BJP is not able to get majority and allies do not agree on Modi’s name then who? RSS has already rejected this claim and said that if not Modi then no one. Was Mr. Gadkari pointing towards Amit Shah & PM Modi?  May be or maybe not. Although what he said was 100% true no doubt about that but does it show any rivalry in between Nitin Gadkari and PM Modi. Oppositions as usual grabbed this opportunity to target PM and claimed Nitin Gadkari is pointing towards Mr. Modi and he should take the responsibility. BJP already denied it, as expected, BJP has said Mr. Gadkari included himself as well in this when he said top leaders should take the responsibility and in no ways he was targeting PM Modi.

6. His latest remarks “Politicians should not make false promises otherwise public will throw them out. I don’t spin dreams, whatever I say I complete it with 100% authority” has more to read and opposition saw this last nail in the coffin of this government. Indian people know that our opposition will not leave any opportunity to target the PM Modi, government and BJP and what Mr. Gadkari said was really very blunt. It hit PM Modi’s image very hard. This also gave more support to the news that Mr. Nitin Gadkari could be the face of NDA after 2019 general election results if BJP does not get majority and allies do not agree on Modi’s name. Though BJP again denied that Mr. Gadkari was not aiming towards Modi & Shah but he was aiming towards the Congress who is giving all the promises just to come into the power.

His other infamous remark is “There are no Jobs in the country” which is another hit to the government and we will discuss it in another post.

Something is cooking and it is Plan B of RSS and BJP, as from recent pre-poll surveys it looks like BJP will not get the majority of its own hence allies will play the power game. So in case of any chance of forming the government with the help of allies RSS & BJP will not let it go. RSS & BJP is preparing for that, if BJP remains around 200-220 seats, Plan B will come in force for BJP to form the government. Nitin Gadkari is the second best choice after PM Modi in BJP and he has the acceptability like Mr. Vajpayee across all political parties. So allies are going to support him. Mr. Rajnath Singh is another personality who can challenge PM Modi if BJP falls in between 200-220 seats but if we look at the last few months Mr. Rajnath Singh is not looking as much as active as Mr. Nitin Gadkari. Mr. Amit Shah and Mr. Narendra Modi duo has more control over the BJP and this is not a hidden fact, RSS does not wants leave its influence over BJP. If we are to believe some media channels there is a cold war going on between RSS & BJP and it is going on for quite some time

All these speculations are on the basis of Ifs and If Modi wave works again then there would be no need of Plan B. Recent pre poll surveys done by many media channels suggest that Mr. Modi’s has tough path to walk ahead. These 3 months are very crucial how Modi and Shah cope up with oppositions punches. Mr. Rahul Gandhi as a leader has shown very impressive improvement, and Congress led oppositions riding really high on these poll surveys.  

There is no denying Mr. Nitin Gadkari is not only a potential contender but also a front runner in the list of ‘Who will be the PM if not Modi’. If you look from this point of view and connect the dots then you will have totally different image of Mr. Nitin Gadkari, An image where he is eyeing for PM Post. Politics is all about perception, In all his interviews in last one year interview, he has given blunt replies, he has shown that he fulfill his promises, he is also popular in opposition as he helps them whenever they ask, for e.g. funding for any project or any new infrastructure they need in their respective states. Acceptance across the parties is the biggest factor in favor of Mr .Nitin Gadkari, Hardworking is another important factor favors him and most importantly he knows like PM Modi how to take work from bureaucrats. One thing which may go against him that is he is a very democratic person like Mr. Vajpayee ji, When time will come he may not go against party and challenge Modi because party is still controlled by Amit Shah & Modi.

Only Nitin Gadkari & Modi can tell what exactly going in between them.