As soon as the name of Nitin Gadkari was announced during the glittering swearing-in ceremony of the new Cabinet under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi, the crowd that had gathered at various locations to watch the ceremony live on television in Nagpur erupted in joy on Sunday evening. It was indeed a historic occasion as Gadkari took oath as Union Minister for the third time in a row. Gadkari’s name was announced after Amit Shah took oath as Union Minister. Gadkari rose from the chair on the grand stage, gracefully walked towards the podium, and took oath. His name was fourth in the list after Narendra Modi, reflecting his seniority and stature. He scored a hat-trick of getting elected to the Lok Sabha since 2014 from Nagpur, and has now taken oath as Union Minister for the third consecutive term.

 

Since 2014, when Gadkari first contested Lok Sabha polls, till now in 2024, he emerged victorious. Though his winning margin kept reducing, it was still over one lakh votes. This time, his victory margin was the lowest among his three victories in Lok Sabha elections. Trashing all rumours, Bharatiya Janata Party announced his candidature for Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency. As his name had not appeared in the first list of BJP candidates, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray made a lame attempt to score political point by offering to him a seat from his party. As soon as BJP announced Gadkari’s name, all rumours were put to rest. Nagpur BJP swung into action. Throughout his campaigns, Gadkari never criticised or made any allegations against rival Congress candidate Vikas Thakre unlike the latter did. Irrespective of the fact that all Opposition parties rallied behind Congress candidate, Gadkari sailed smoothly and secured his third victory. The margin of victory also was over 1.37 lakh votes.