Union Minister Nitin Gadkari clarifies 'BJP made tall promises in 2014' remark

The controversy ballooned after Gandhi shared a clip of the video in which Gadkari, sitting along actor Nana Patkar, was heard saying. "We were very confident that we would never come to power, so were advised to make tall promises. Now that we are in power, the public reminds us of those promises made by us. Nowadays, we just laugh and move on."

Picture: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari's Twitter account.

New Delhi: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday sought to clarify his remarks made during a discussion on a Marathi TV channel. The minister was forced to do so after Congress President Rahul Gandhi yesterday shared a purported video in which Gadkari says his party had made "tall promises" to the people. Addressing a press conference, Gadkari slammed Gandhi for sharing a video that was not translated accurately. “I was asked a question on elections and I said during Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha polls, Gopinath Munde and Devendra Fadnavis suggested scrapping of toll tax in the state if BJP comes to power. I told them it should be not done since it will create a lot of financial roadblocks. So they told me whether I actually believe that BJP would form the next government to which I said if we do, we will have to. Since we did not have the experience of being in power, we used to make a lot of announcements in the manifesto,” he said.

#WATCH: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari clarifies on his earlier reported statement that 'BJP overpromised in 2014 elections'. pic.twitter.com/WCDkYiqSZf

— ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2018

Gadkari further said Fadnavis fulfilled the promise of scrapping toll tax after coming to power. The controversy ballooned up after Gandhi shared a clip of the video in which Gadkari, sitting along actor Nana Patkar, was heard saying. "We were very confident that we would never come to power, so were advised to make tall promises. Now that we are in power, the public reminds us of those promises made by us. Nowadays, we just laugh and move on." The Congress seized upon the opportunity to link it with the government reneging on its 2014 election promises. “ A Delhi-based newspaper carried a baseless report in which I did not take name of BJP, PM Narendra Modi or Rs 15 lakh and Rahul Gandhi tries to share the video in which the language used is Marathi that he doesn’t understand. He has done something like this in the past and should have got that video properly translated.

सही फ़रमाया, जनता भी यही सोचती है कि सरकार ने लोगों के सपनों और उनके भरोसे को अपने लोभ का शिकार बनाया है| pic.twitter.com/zhlKTrKHgU

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 9, 2018

Gandhi in the tweet had said, "Rightly said. People also think that the government has made their dreams and hopes a victim of its greed." The BJP is in power in Maharashtra and at the Centre.