Gadkari's dig at Team Anna: It's tough to run a party

Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari on Monday took a swipe at Team Anna for its plans to take a plunge in electoral politics, saying it was not easy to set up a political party and run it.

"It is easy to lead agitations but a tough job to form and run a party," Gadkari said.

He was addressing the concluding session of the two-day state BJP conclave in Agra.

Gadkari citied the case of agriculturist and peasant leader Sharad Joshi, and said he had agitated well but flopped when he tried to run a political party.

Team Anna has talked about a political alternative which they claimed will be people-centric.

Hitting out at UPA, Gadkari alleged that wrong economic policies of the Union government, lack of leadership and failure in taking strong decisions had pushed the country to the present state even after 65 years of Independence.

He said BJP alone had the will power to make India the biggest economic power of the world by exploiting the vast intellectual and economic potential of the country.

Gadkari said if the NDA came to power, the country's economic growth would go up to 13 per cent in three years and agricultural growth to 8-10 ten per cent and cited BJP-ruled states to substantiate his remark.

He also had a dig at some parties practising "dynastic politics" and said in the Congress, it was Nehru to Indira to Rajiv, to Sonia, to Rahul and now to the Priyanka.

Some parties, he said, had made a 'tamasha' (drama) of politics by foisting their sons and other members of the family as leaders.

Gadkari attacked the Uttar Pradesh government saying the law and order situation was bad as women and girls were not safe, industrial production was poor, farmers were in the sorry state and unemployment was high.

 He said the tall promises made by the SP in its election manifesto had turned out to be hollow.

 He also blamed the state for the power breakdown in northern and eastern India.