Staring at defeat, SP held Congress' hand, says Nitin Gadkari

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Sunday took a dig at the Congress-SP coalition in Uttar Pradesh, saying "politics is a game of convenience, contradiction and compulsion" and when a ruling party realised it cannot win on its own, it held Congress' hand.

Asserting that the BJP was a party of workers, he termed the Congress as a "mother-son party" and the Samajwadi Party as "father-son party".

"Politics is the game of convenience, contradiction, compulsion and limitation. When Samajwadi Party realised that it could not win on its own, it held the hand of Congress. It shows its helplessness. Mulayam Singh Yadav never wanted to go with Congress," said Gadkari, also a former BJP president.

The BJP is contesting the elections in Uttar Pradesh without projecting a chief ministerial face, a decision which a section of political analysts feel could dent its prospects in the assembly election.

Defending the party's decision of not projecting any chief ministerial candidate, he said, "After the elections in Uttar Pradesh, the elected MLAs and party's parliamentary board will decide about the chief minister."

Asked whether the outcome of assembly elections could be a precursor as to what may happen in Lok Sabha polls in 2019, "Every election has its own references and subjects. And sometimes issues differ from polls to polls. But, overall the work done by the Modi government in the two-and-a-half years is being appreciated by the people.

"We have done positive work and so is the feeling of people towards us."

On opposition parties forming alliances to take on the BJP, he said, "When one party becomes very strong compared to others, it happens. This is law of nature... There are some people who convert problems into opportunity, there are some who convert opportunity into problems and then there are some politicians who convert challenges into successes."