Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said that a politician once advised him to join the Congress, to which he replied that he would rather die by jumping into a well than becoming a member of that party.
Addressing a gathering in Maharashtra's Bhandara on Friday to mark completion of nine years of the Narendra Modi government, Gadkari recalled his initial days of working for the BJP and talked about the party's journey. He also recalled the advice once given by late Congress leader Shrikant Jichkar.
Jichkar once told me You are a very good party worker and leader, and if you join the Congress, you will have a bright future'. But I told him that I would rather jump into a well than join the Congress because I have strong faith in the BJP and its ideology and will continue to work for it, Gadkari said.
Nitin Gadkari also claimed that the BJP government carried out twice the amount of work in the country in the last nine years as compared to what the Congress did in the 60 years of its rule. He also hailed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for instilling values in him in his younger days when he worked for the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS.