As Raj Thackeray and Amit Shah meet amid alliance buzz, Nitin Gadkari declares that the party will decide at the Rising Bharat Summit

Nitin Gadkari, a prominent BJP leader and Union Minister, said at CNN-News18’s Rising Bharat Summit on Tuesday that the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership would make the right decision about a potential coalition with Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in Kerala.

“I had a call from Raj Thackeray this morning for job matters, but I am unaware of the alliance decision. On this, our leadership will make the proper decision, according to Gadkari.

In a sign that the saffron party is hoping to form an alliance with him for the Lok Sabha elections in order to strengthen its partnership in Maharashtra, Raj Thackeray met with senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday morning in the nation’s capital.

According to rumors, if the agreement is finalized, the MNS would be awarded one seat to run from Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra, where the Shiv Sena party, headed by his cousin Uddhav Thackeray, has considerable sway.

Concerning the seat sharing discussions in Maharashtra, which sends 48 MPs to the Lok Sabha, between the BJP, Ajit Pawar’s NCP, and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, Gadkari said that they are at the “final stage” and expressed confidence that the BJP-led coalition will win the most seats in his home state. Additionally, he downplayed the importance of the Maratha quota problem in the impending elections, claiming that CM Eknath Shinde has found a solution.

“The opposition alliance has no future and will see defeat in this election,” the Union Minister said in reference to the India bloc’s recent gathering in Mumbai. Many of their leaders will retire after the loss.

The prominent BJP figure further said that he had no intention of joining any other political organization. The Union Minister stated, “There was no discussion happening regarding Maharashtra before the first list was released,” while playing a video of Shiv Sena-UBT leader Uddhav Thackeray mocking the BJP for not including Gadkari’s name in the first list of candidates. My name was included on the second list after a proper discussion with the state leadership. As a BJP employee, I will only run on a BJP platform. He said that Uddhav’s offer of a Shiv Sena-UBT ticket was absurd.

Nitin Gadkari also gave an explanation for his choice to abstain from campaigning with any banners or posters featuring himself. “My family makes up all of my votes. They are aware that I have been employed by them since 2014, up to this point. For this reason, I don’t believe I need to hang a banner, hoarding, or billboard for this election. I have a relationship with them, and I’ll be knocking on doors this time around as well.

When asked to elaborate on his previous remark that “good work never gets appreciated,” Gadkari said, “Many misquoted me; that statement was related to the system that we have in place, not the political party.” Having worked in this system for the last ten years, I can attest to how complex it is—a good worker never receives recognition, and a poor worker is never disciplined.

Furthermore, Gadkari refuted claims that he wants to leave politics. “I have never expressed a desire to leave politics. I have previously said that the definition of politics has to be revised. Politics is not only about power. Politics is also social work and national service. The agitation of Gandhiji was also “politics.” Our efforts should be divided into two categories: social issues and politics. By assisting individuals in my constituency in receiving medical care, I am implementing such efforts.

The Union Minister said, “Many things have been cleared by our Constitution,” in response to the false information surrounding the recent adoption of the Citizenship Amendment Act. If members of the Buddhist, Jain, or Hindu faiths go outside and are repatriated, according to our Constitution, they are entitled to lawful Indian citizenship. Thus, everything that occurs is in accordance with the Constitution.

Mumbai’s transportation plan was also revealed by India’s Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari.

In 2047, as we celebrate our 100th year of independence, the PM wants public transportation to be powered by both water and electricity. I wrote a study when I was the shipping minister explaining how you could take a waterway from anywhere in Mumbai city to the Navi Mumbai airport in about 17 minutes. At the airport in Navi Mumbai, we have also built a jetty. In the future, we’ll have water taxis. Public transportation is going to undergo a major change in the near future. In Bangalore, we are also researching double-decker buses, which may be more affordable than metro rail.