In a view that contradicted the stand taken by senior party colleague Gopinath Munde, former BJP president Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday that NCP chief Sharad Pawar was welcome to the NDA. Within days after Munde vehemently opposed Pawar’s entry to the BJP-led Opposition coalition at the national level, Gadkari struck a different note, when he said the NDA’s doors were “open” to as much to the NCP chief, as they were to leaders like Mamata Banerjee, J Jayalalitha, Navin Patnaik and Chandrababu Naidu.
“Our doors are open to all political parties excepting the Congress. Our doors are open to Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, Jayalalitha or even Navin Patnaik. We would like to expand the NDA. Now that Chandrababu Naidu has expressed his intention to join the NDA. We are taking him into our fold,” Gadkari said, in a interview with Hindi television channel IBN7. When his attention drawn to Munde’s statement that Pawar was not welcome to the NDA, Gadkari said: “Gopinath Munde will be able to clarify on what he has said. As far as Sharad Pawar is concerned, today he is neither in the NDA nor have there been any talks to invite him to the NDA. … But, our doors are open to all political parties excepting the Congress”.
Gadkari’s statement should be seen in the light of the fact that he enjoys good relations with Pawar and the NCP chief’s latest statement, confirming that he had indeed met Modi during his recent visit to Ahmedabad. Speaking at an inaugural function of a mini sports complex at Dhokali locality in the adjoining Thane district, Pawar had not only confirmed his meeting with the Gujarat CM, but had also justified the development, saying that his meeting Modi did not mean that he had met a Pakistani or a person from China.