Narendra Modi, Mahatma Gandhi are comparable for Nitin Gadkari

RAJKOT: It could be an attempt by the new leader of a crisis-ridden party to add shine to some of the leaders or just pro-forma homage to Gandhi on the day he was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic. But either way, Gandhians are not likely to be amused by the comparison between Narendra Modi and Bapu.

On his first visit to Gujarat, BJP's national president Nitin Gadkari compared chief minister Narendra Modi to Mahatma Gandhi on Saturday soon after paying homage at Kirti Mandir, Gandhi's birth place in Porbander, on his 62nd death anniversary. "Both worked on the same ideology that the poorest of poor and the man at the grassroot must get benefits," Gadkari said at the Garib Kalyan Mela, an outreach programme for the poor launched by Modi.

Lauding the initiative, Gadkari said, "Modi had digested well the ideology of Gandhiji and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, one of the founders of the BJP. Development of villages was Gandhiji's aim and is Modi's aim too."

Gadkari, along with state ministers Purushottam Rupala, Jay Narayan Vyas, Vaju Vala, Vijay Rupani and Babu Bokhiriya, earlier attended a prayer session at Kirti Mandir. Later, he unveiled a bronze statue of Deendayal Upadhyaya. Speaking at the same mela, Modi said, "This is the 34th GKM and I am determined to provide food and facilities to the poor."

To a question on regionalism in Maharashtra, Gadkari said, "Division in the name of language is unfortunate. Gandhiji never showed us a path out of this."