Laughable I am called a businessman: Nitin Gadkari responds to Arvind Kejriwal's allegations - Highlights

New Delhi: BJP today reacted to activist-politician Arvind Kejriwal's allegations against its president and leader Nitin Gadkari. Mr Kejriwal had alleged that Mr Gadkari worked in nexus with the Congress- NCP government for the benefit of his companies, which allegedly worked directly against the farmers of Vidarbha.

Here are the highlights of what the BJP leaders they said:

Nitin Gadkari:

• Laughable that I am called a businessman.
• I am working for farmers of Vidarbha.
• Kolhapur has the highest per capita income in Maharashtra.
• I work as a social enterprise for the benefits of farmers - cooperatives have government interference, so I form public companies.
• I work for the interests of the poor people; they have tried to malign me for their political interests.
• The BJP is getting a good political space because of the corruption allegations against the ruling party. They (Kejriwal & Co) want that political space.
• I am open for any probe. I have always said that. 
• Only one farmer asked for land. That farmer is still working on his land. You can go there and see. We have never taken the land from him.
  

Sushma Swaraj:

• Today curiosity was raised to new levels - Kejriwal's big announcement.
• It was sensationalised so much - some of you must have been disappointed.
• We knew they could have dug as much as they wanted to but would've found nothing.
• Mr Kejriwal just didn't ask for votes. That was the only thing left that did not turn the press conference into an election rally. They took everybody's name in the press conference. 
• All allegations are baseless. They said Mr Gadkari's plant gets water from the dam. The truth is that only 0.8 per cent of the water goes to Mr Gadkari's plant, that is less than one per cent.
• The press conference was meaningless. We are happy that they could not dig out any dirt against our party president.

Arun Jaitley:

• They want to put question marks on every political party. It was a failed attempt. They wanted to show all political parties are the same.
• The press conference was made to be a mountain of what was not even a molehill.
• India Against Corruption has damaged the credibility of all civil societies of the country.
• They are hitmen who made no impact today. They in fact scored a self goal.
• Mr Gadkari's trust was given a lease for 11 years of a land that was barren. It produces sugarcane on its own cost and sells it farmers at low prices.
• It was not farm land, it was waste land. All constructions - industries and residences - have been made on land that was originally meant for agriculture.
• No comparison between allegations against Robert Vadra and those against Mr Gadkari.
• He (Gadkari) has been the most fierce leader of opposition , exposing scam after scam telgi onwards.