Never hankered after positions: Venkaiah

Vice-presidential nominee says he never imagined BJP to come to power

“I was always a grassroot worker and party organiser. I never aspired for the posts like President or Vice-President. I never declined any position in the party or the government, but I never hankered for them either,” said former Union Minister and NDA vice-presidential candidate M. Venkaiah Naidu on Friday.

Addressing a ‘Meet & Greet’ programme organised here to felicitate him for being chosen for the Vice-President post, Mr. Naidu went nostalgic and recalled that the BJP was like “mother” to him and gave him posts and positions without he even asking for it. RSS defined his personality, ABVP gave him leadership roles and the BJP gave him opportunities.

Relinquishing ministry

“When I was the Union Minister for Rural Development I resigned to become the party president on the directions of A.B. Vajpayee and L.K. Advani. Similarly, it took me no time to relinquish the Urban Ministry when the party decided to field me as the vice-president candidate. Within 10 minutes, I even sent away the official car,” he told the gathering.

Among those assembled included his former Cabinet colleague Y.S. Chowdhary, TS Ministers K.T. Rama Rao, N. Narasimha Reddy, T. Nageswara Rao, Mayor B. Rammohan, BJP leaders K. Laxman, G. Kishan Reddy, film stars Nagarjuna, Venkatesh, doctors, industrialists, etc.

The former Minister said that “having faith in the party and its ideology without any expectations” has brought him this far, more so, he never imagined “BJP will come to power in those days!”

Retirement plans

He wanted to emulate Nanaji Deshmukh and retire to his village in 2020 after ensuring Prime Minister Modi is returned to power. “Mr. Deshmukh had quit as MP, refused Morarji Desai’s offer of Ministry and retired to Chitrakoot on Uttar Pradesh-Madhya Pradesh border to work for development of 500 villages. That is my idea too,” he claimed.

Advice to Telugu States

Mr. Naidu said he had also declined Ministry that TDP founder N.T. Rama Rao offered after returning to power in 1985, but he was not the kind to switch parties for power. He appealed to the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments to work together for development of both States as Telugu people were one and it was only a political decision to bifurcate.

With regard to Swarna Bharati Trust, he denied any wrong doing and said it was not taking funds from Government or abroad but only got tax concessions. It is working for last 16 years towards skill development, disabled welfare, etc.