Nitin Gadkari's comments came a day after he accused the media of "twisting" his remarks on "leadership owning up to defeat". (Photo: Reuters)

Days after Union minister Nitin Gadkari kicked up a storm with "leadership owning up to defeat" remark, only to accuse the media of twisting his statement, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader’s latest remarks are enough to stoke another wedge between him and the party leadership.

Vicariously questioning the BJP leadership yet again, Gadkari asked who would be held responsible for the defeat of his MPs and MLAs, if he were the party president.

"If I am the party president, and my MPs and MLAs are not doing well, then who is responsible? he said.

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Nitin Gadkari was addressing Intelligence Bureau officials at the 31st IB endowment lecture at the Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Monday (December 24).

His statement gave enough leeway that he was hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah after the party's poor performance in the recently concluded three state assembly elections.

The BJP lost to the Congress party in the Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in the assembly polls -- seen to be the semi-final contest between the BJP and the Opposition parties before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

"Leadership should own up the defeat"

Nitin Gadkari’s latest statement questioning the leadership has come in the backdrop of his "leadership should own up defeat" remarks made at a Pune event on Saturday (December 22).

The BJP stalwart had said nobody is willing to own up to failure unlike success and maintained "leadership should have the 'vrutti' [tendency] to own up defeat and failures".

"Loyalty of the leadership towards the organisation will not be proved till the time it owns up responsibility for defeat," Gadkari reportedly said.

Gadkari later accused a section of media of twisting his statement.

Clarifying on his statement, he said, Let me make it clear once and for all that conspiracies to create a wedge between me and the BJP leadership will never succeed. I have been clarifying my position at various forums and shall continue to do so and expose these nefarious designs of our detractors.

"Even a transgender would bear children..."

Gadkari made another foot-in-the-mouth statement while inaugurating a lift irrigation project in Maharashtra's Sangli.

Even a transgender would bear children but an irrigation scheme in Maharashtra's Sangli district would never be completed," Gadkari said, while addressing a rally, in reference to how the previous governments in the state failed to accomplish the task.

The lift irrigation project is about fetching water from the Krishna river basin and irrigating the arid region of Sangli district to increase agriculture production.

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