Pune
Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said “leadership” should own up to “defeat and failures” also, days after his party lost polls in three Hindi heartland states.

In a cryptic remark, the BJP stalwart, who is known for speaking his mind, said that nobody is willing to own up to failure unlike success.”Success has many fathers but failure is an orphan, as when there is success, there will be a race to take credit but in case of failure, everybody will start pointing fingers at each other,” the Road Transport and Highways Minister said.

The BJP ceded power to the Congress in the recently-concluded assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

In the wake of the defeat, BJP leaders and Union ministers had said that the poll outcome was not a referendum on the performance of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

“Leadership should have the ‘vrutti’ to own up the defeat and failures. Loyalty of the leadership towards the organisation will not be proved till the time it owns up responsibility for defeat,” he said.

“In politics, after a defeat in any state or Lok Sabha elections, the defeated candidates start cribbing and complain that they did not get adequate support,” the senior BJP leader said.

He said a candidate loses because either his party is lacking somewhere or he is failing to gain confidence of the people.