No plans to retire from politics, says Union minister Nitin Gadkari

NAGPUR: Five days after he dropped hints about losing interest in politics, Union minister Nitin Gadkari denied speculations regarding his retirement.
Speaking to the media on his visit to oversee the Mumbai-Goa highway preparations on Thursday, Gadkari said he never talked about his retirement and that his comments were misconstrued.
“I had talked about doing work in the social, education and environment sectors. If you work sincerely, there is no need to appease people. They will automatically vote for you after recognizing your work. I only said that I will not appease anyone but my comments were blown out of proportion,” he said.
On rumours about his retirement, Gadkari said a few elements have this habit of sensationalizing things and creating confusion among people. “It is a matter of credibility and trust. Such things usually start from someone posting misleading news on their website and others following it blindly. This usually creates a trust deficit which is unfortunate,” he added.
Speaking at an awards function on Sunday, Gadkari had called on citizens to vote for him only if it suited them. He won two Lok Sabha polls from the city in 2014 and 2019.
The minister’s statement that it would be okay if someone replaced him and that he wanted to devote more time to his ventures related to alternate fuel had sparked off retirement rumours.