Nefarious and fabricated campaign against me for political mileage, tweets Nitin Gadkari

New Delhi: A week after Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari was removed from key committees of the Bhartiya Janata Party, the Union Minister has tweeted saying a section of media and some people are running a nefarious and fabricated campaign against him.

The minister also warned that he will not hesitate taking legal action against people and organisations behind the malicious campaign against him.

Today, once again, efforts were being made to continue the nefarious & fabricated campaign against me for political mileage on my behest by some section of mainstream media, social media and some persons in particular by concocting my statements...

— Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) August 25, 2022

Tagging the PMO, BJP and party chief JP Nadda on Twitter, Gadkari shared his full speech while threatening of legal action against people running 'fabricated campaign.

...I will not hesitate to take them to the law in the larger interest of our Government, Party and millions of our hardworking Karyakartas.

Therefore, I'm sharing the link of what I had actually said.https://t.co/jk7eR4056r

— Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) August 25, 2022

Gadkari's reaction came after a story published by the Times of India on Thursday.

Titled "Nitin Gadkari was told weeks ago he’d be axed from top panels", the TOI story claimed that the fall of Gadkari was backed by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

"Gadkari had been apprised of his removal from the panels a couple of weeks ago, and he is said to have readily resigned to his fate," TOI story said.

Some unnamed BJP leaders allegedly told TOI that Gadkari will continue as minister because of his impressive work and yet not be a part of decision-making in the party, provided he stopped annoying the Sangh and BJP leaderships. 

Quoting sources, TOI said that the removal of Gadkari from BJP's Parliamentary Board and also from the Central Election Committee (CEC) is reflective of the changed equations in RSS. "The theory that Gadkari has RSS support as he is based in Nagpur may no longer be accurate," TOI said.

"More so, because his apparent “demotion” coincides with the rising stature of Fadnavis, a fellow saffronite from Nagpur who appeared to be far behind the Union minister until 2014 when he became the CM of Maharashtra at the latter’s expense," the story added.

Quoting political analysts, TOI's story said that BJP could not have taken a decision concerning someone so important without taking the Sangh Parivar into confidence. "Gadkari is close to the RSS leadership as he is based in Nagpur. Things, however, began to change after Dattatreya Hosabale took over as the sarkaryavaha. Though second to sarsanghchalak (chief) Mohan Bhagwat, it is the sarkayavaha who takes key decisions."

Clearly suggesting PM Narendra Modi's hand behind Gadkari's demotion, the story further said, "For Gadkari, Bhaiyaji (Suresh) Joshi would have been a better bet than Hosabale. The latter is known to be close to Modi. “Today, there’s little chance the RSS would try to turn down the proposal to remove Gadkari.”