Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday termed as "false and baseless" the reports attributing him to have said the BJP made tall promises in 2014 Lok Sabha elections as it was confident it would not come to power. He said he never made the remarks.
Gadkari further said he did not say anything on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Government and depositing of Rs 15 lakh in everyone's account. "This is completely baseless news. I want to appeal to all to watch the actual interview to get the context of what we were talking about. The programme was in Marathi and I wonder since when has Rahul Gandhi started understanding Marathi," Gadkari said on the sidelines of a Press conference on Ganga Rejuvenation.
Further hitting out at the Congress president, who tweeted the video on Tuesday, the minister asked him to learn Marathi for a better understanding of his interview's content. "I also want to appeal to Rahul Gandhi to learn Marathi and not write anything on Twitter without understanding something," he added.
"Seven-eight days back I went to the Marathi channel for the interview. I told them that during Maharashtra elections Devendra Fadnavis and Gopinath Munde were discussing a poll promise about toll plaza. I objected to it by saying that it would be very tough to implement and hence, we should not make such a promise. I mentioned to them that we have mostly been into opposition and have less experience of being in power, hence we face some issues while making poll promises," Gadkari said on his clarification.
Several reports claimed that Gadkari, during an interview to a Marathi news channel, said that Modi government came to power on the basis of unrealistic promises.
Rahul had shared the video of the interview on Twitter and said, "People also think that the Government has made their dreams and hopes a victim of its greed."
Stating that his statement was twisted and then published in an English newspaper, Gadkari said, "An English newspaper based out of Delhi twisted my statement. I never named Prime Minister Modi, or 15 lakh or any such thing."