No Interest in Being 2019 PM Face: Nitin Gadkari to Karan Thapar

In an interview with Karan Thapar for The Quint, Nitin Gadkari says he has no interest in being the 2019 PM face.

Senior journalist Karan Thapar with Minister of Road and Highways Nitin Gadkari

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Mohammad Ibrahim

I’ve already got a lot for my status and position. I’m happy as a minister. I’m not a PM candidate and I don’t want to be one. There’s no chance of that happening.

Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways

In an exclusive interview with senior journalist Karan Thapar for The Quint, Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari answered a question that many have been speculating about: His chances of becoming the Prime Ministerial candidate face in the 2019 elections.

With the general elections just nine months away, Gadkari expressed confidence that the BJP will win 272 seats alone and will form government again.

The Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has been in power at the Centre for over four years, and in just nine months’ time, it will face the Lok Sabha elections.

Karan Thapar asks Gadkari what would happen if the BJP fails to get a clear majority, saying that many people had suggested that if the BJP formed an alliance to win the 2019 elections, the Prime Ministerial face of the party would be him, and not Narendra Modi.

In response, Gadkari maintains that the BJP would singlehandedly win a clear majority and that Narendra Modi will continue as the Prime Minister of India.

Gadkari then dismisses Thapar’s questions as impossible speculation.

The question you’re asking doesn’t arise at all, because the BJP will singlehandedly win the 2019 elections and Modi will be the Prime Minister.

Nitin Gadkari