Gadkari says no rift with BJP leadership

In the backdrop of his reported remarks and the BJP's defeat in the three Hindi heartland states, Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said "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 former BJP president said in a statement on Twitter.

"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. 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," said Gadkari, who holds important portfolios like road transport and highways, shipping and water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation.

A couple of days ago, Gadkari was quoted saying, "Success has many fathers but failure is an orphan, as 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."

He further said, "Sometimes, banks achieve success and sometimes they will have to face failure... The banks have to face both the situations... In politics, when there is a failure, a committee is formed but in case of success, nobody comes and asks you," he had said.