Mumbai: Union minister Nitin Gadkari said that party workers should fulfil their domestic responsibilities first because those who cannot do that ‘cannot manage the country.’

He was speaking at a gathering of former workers of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) student wing, in Nagpur on Saturday.

“I meet many people who say ‘we want to devote our lives for the BJP, for the country’. I asked (one such person) ‘what do you do, and who all are there in your family’. He said ‘I have closed my shop as it was not doing well.... I have my wife at home, children’,” Mr Gadkari said.

He added, “I told him to look after his home first, because one who cannot manage his home, cannot manage the country. Hence first manage your home and look after your children properly, then work for the party and country,” he said.

The statement is being seen as yet another apparent salvo at Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After the BJP’s defeat in recently concluded Assembly polls of three states, Mr Gadkari had said that the leaders should accept responsibility for the party’s defeat and failures.

The Union minister’s recent statements have been seen as attempts to push his claims as a Prime Minister after the Lok Sabha polls. However, Mr Gadkari has always denied his participation in the race of Prime Ministership. “I am not in the race of Prime Minister and we are all working towards making Narendra Modiji Prime Minister again,” he said.