Mumbai, Dec 23 : Union minister and BJP leader Nitin Gadkari Sunday said some opposition parties and a section of the media have "twisted" his statements, an assertion that comes in the backdrop of his reported "leadership should own up defeat" remarks.
The BJP stalwart was Saturday reported as saying that nobody is willing to own up to failure unlike success and maintained "leadership should have the 'vrutti' (tendency) to own up defeat and failures".
The minister, who was speaking at an event in Pune, did not elaborate, but his comments assumed significance in wake of the BJP's defeat in just-held assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
However, Gadkari, known for speaking his mind, said Sunday his statements have been twisted.
"In the last few days, I have noticed a sinister campaign by some opposition parties and a section of the media to twist my statements and use them out of context and draw politically motivated inferences to malign my party and me," he wrote on the micro-blogging site Twitter.
Gadkari claimed there was a "conspiracy" to create a wedge between him and the BJP leadership.
"I have time and again strongly refuted such insinuations and once again condemn all these malafide and mischievous out of context reports attributed to me.
"Let me make it clear once and for all that conspiracies to create a wedge between the BJP leadership and me will never succeed," he tweeted.
"I have been clarifying my position at various forums and shall continue to do so and expose these nefarious designs of our detractors," he said.
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Kochi (PTI): Five persons, including three children, were found dead at a rented house at Vaduthala here on Saturday, police said.
The deceased have been identified as Sreekumari (58), her daughter Aswathi Nair (36), two grandsons aged 14 and 4, and a two-year-old granddaughter.
They were natives of Vilappilsala in Thiruvananthapuram and had been staying in a rented house on Karsaka Road in Vaduthala.
Police suspect that the children were poisoned before Sreekumari and Aswathi hanged themselves.
According to police, the family had been living in the house since February for the treatment of the elder son at a nearby private hospital and were about to vacate the premises.
The incident came to light when a cable TV operator, who had come for work, noticed the two women hanging inside the room through a window and alerted others, police said.
The house owner and police soon reached the spot and initiated an investigation.
Police said Aswathi’s husband had died about eight months ago after the couple had separated.
He was allegedly suffering from liver disease due to alcoholism.
Following his death, neighbours and people close to the family had allegedly blamed Aswathi and her mother, officials said.
A police officer said the family was financially sound, as they were paying a monthly rent of Rs 35,000 and owned property and a house in Thiruvananthapuram.
Police said that a suicide note was recovered from the house.
The bodies were later shifted to Kalamassery Medical College, where postmortem examinations will be conducted on Sunday.
Ernakulam North Police have registered a case and begun an investigation.
