Opposition's sinister campaign creating misunderstanding: Gadkari on 'leadership' remark

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari claimed that from last few days a "sinister campaign" was run by some opposition parties to create a misunderstanding between him and the BJP's leadership.

The comment came after Gadkari recently suggested that leaders should consider taking responsibility for defeats as well, and not just for victories.

"In the last few days, I have noticed a sinister campaign by some opposition parties and a section of the media to twist my statements and use them out of context and draw politically motivated inferences to malign me and my party," he tweeted on Sunday.

Furthermore, the senior BJP leader refuted "malafide and mischievous" out of context reports attributed to him by "detractors".

"I have time and again strongly refuted such insinuations and once again condemn all these malafide and mischievous out of context reports attributed to me," he said.

Continuing his tirade against the opposition, he tweeted, "Let me make it clear once and for all that conspiracies to create a wedge between me and the BJP leadership will never succeed. I have been clarifying my position at various forums and shall continue to do so and expose these nefarious designs of our detractors."

The Union Minister had said at an event in Pune on Saturday that those who take credit for victory must also own up in case of defeat.

"Success has many fathers but failure is an orphan, as in politics when there is success, there will be a race to take credit but in case of failure, everybody will start pointing fingers at each other. One also has to take credit of failure and that kind of leadership should be there. (Party) leadership should own up to failures. Until it does so, its loyalty and commitment towards the organisation are not proved," he had said.

The cryptic remark of the Union Minister had come after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost three 'Hindi heartland' states -- Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh-- in the recently-concluded Assembly elections.