JOIN USGujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party national president Nitin Gadkari have apparently buried the hatchet as the two leaders shared a dais at Modi’s “rathyatra” here on Monday.
Gadkari promised that the party would “replicate the Gujarat model across the country if voted to power.”
With the 2012 Gujarat Assembly elections round the corner, such a move was necessary for both Modi and Gadkari, whose troubled relationship had forced the intervention of e Sangh Parivar leaders, culminating in the ouster of Sanjay Joshi, the then party general secretary.
The two leaders put up a show of unity at the religious township of Ambaji in North Gujarat as Modi continued his month-long Vivekanand Yuva Vikas Yatra.
Buoyed by the new found camaraderie, both of them lashed out at the United Progressive Alliance government terming it corrupt . Modi focussed his attack on the Congress and the Gandhi family.
At another function in Rajkot, Modi compared himself with Rahul Gandhi only to take a dig at the Congress leader. He said while Rahul “is an international leader,” he (Modi) was “just” a regional leader. “The leaders of the Congress have been saying that the Gandhi scion cannot be compared with a regional leader like me, for he is not only capable enough to contest from anywhere in India but also from Italy,” Modi said sarcastically.
Gadkari said the country had been in the hands of a single family (Gandhis).