"If we commit same mistakes as Congress...": Nitin Gadkari cautions BJP

Panaji: The BJP has been a party with a difference and that is why it has repeatedly won the trust of voters, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said today, as he cautioned against the party repeating the past mistakes of the Congress that saw its exit from power.

“If we continue doing what the Congress used to do, there is no use of their exit and our entry,” emphasised Gadkari in comments coming more than a month after the BJP failed to notch up a majority of its own in the Lok Sabha polls.

The minister was addressing a Goa BJP executive meeting near Panaji which was attended by the party’s state unit chief Sadanand Tanavade and Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, among others.

In his 40-minute speech, the Union minister recalled his mentor and former deputy PM LK Advani’s statement that the “BJP is a party with a difference”.

“Advani ji used to say that we are a party with a difference. We have to understand how different we are from the other parties,” the former BJP president said.

The Lok Sabha MP from Nagpur said people have elected the BJP because of the Congress’ mistakes and cautioned his party against committing the same errors.

“If we commit the same mistakes, there is no use in their exit and our entry,” he asserted.

“That is why, in the days to come, party cadres should know that politics is an instrument for bringing social and economic reforms,” he said.

Gadkari stressed, “We have to create a corruption-free country and for that, we should have a plan in place”.

Referring to politics in Maharashtra, Gadkari argued that in his home state, there is a trend of playing politics on caste.

“I have decided not to follow this trend. I have told people that I will not indulge in caste politics. Jo karega jaat ki baat, usko padegi kaske laath (ones speaking about castes will be kicked out of power),” he warned.

A person is known by the values he possesses and not his caste, he maintained.

In a message directed at Goa BJP cadres,  Gadkari urged them to visit every constituency and strengthen the organisation so that the party can retain power in the 2027 assembly elections.