What do Gadkari's recent outbursts tell us?

Union minister and veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nitin Gadkari is on fire these days.

His recent outbursts indicate that all is not well between him and the leadership.

The relationship further soured after he was dropped from the all-important BJP parliamentary board.

Gadkari is the most outspoken leader in the present BJP in which the writ of only Prime Minister Narendra Modi runs large and whose plans are executed by his close lieutenant and union home minister Amit Shah.

In 2014 after Modi became the Prime Minister, there were gossip items in newspapers on how Gadkari defied his diktat of staying in the national capital on Saturdays and Sundays, arguing that he meets around 5000 people of his constituency on the weekends and hence won't accept such directives.

He is also perhaps among the few BJP seniors who share good rapport with leaders of other political parties. In fact, few months ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, there was a huge buzz in the political circles that the obvious choice or the consensus candidate of other supporting parties for the Prime Minister's post would be either Gadkari or defence minister Rajnath Singh in case Modi does not get a majority on his own and has to rely heavily on outside support.

However, Modi won the elections hands down and the BJP on its own bagged 303 of the total 543 seats.

It is well-known that both Gadkari and Singh nursed the ambition of becoming the Prime Minister.

In the present BJP, there is a tough fight between Shah and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to be Modi's successor as and when he decides to hang his boots.

That leaves both Gadkari and Singh far behind in the race.

Sometime ago, there was a report in a Maharashtra-based newspaper, Lokmat, that fireworks were witnessed between Gadkari and the Prime Minister in one of the cabinet meetings.

That said, Gadkari has been making noises much to the discomfiture of the BJP leadership.

On Tuesday, he attacked his own government for delays in implementing various projects.

He said the government is not taking decisions in time.

Soon after at an event in Nagpur, Gadkari credited BJP's rise to power to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani and Deendayal Upadhyaya.

He then went on to quote a portion from Vajpayee's speech at the BJP's conclave in Mumbai in 1980. “Atalji had said that the darkness will disappear, the Sun will come out and the lotus (BJP’s symbol) will bloom one day, the leaders and workers did such a work that today we are in power under Modi's leadership," he said.

This is contrary to claims made by several BJP leaders who credit Modi alone for the rise of the party across the country.

Prior to this, Gadkari had last month lamented that politics in present times was more about staying in power.

The reference was apparent and the statement had its repercussions too. Gadkari was booted out of the parliamentary board. Along with him, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Chouhan too was removed from the top panel.

So, are the two no longer in the good books of Modi and Shah. Does it also mean that Chouhan could be axed as the chief minister anytime soon and that the BJP will go to the 2023 assembly elections with a new face to beat the anti-incumbency against him? Chouhan has been the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh continuously since 2003 except for 15 months from December 2018 to March 2020 when Jyotiraditya Scindia revolted against the Congress to bring down the Kamal Nath government.

Out of the two, Gadkari's removal is significant given that he is considered very close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leadership. How is it going to play out in the BJP, only time will tell?