Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nitin Gadkari on Saturday claimed that an Opposition leader had offered him support to become the prime minister.

However, he said that he had declined the offer. “I asked, why should you support me and why should I take your support?” Gadkari, the Union minister of road transport and highways, said at an event in Nagpur.

The BJP leader did not clarify which Opposition leader he was referring to.

“To become a prime minister is not the aim in my life,” he said. “I am loyal to my conviction and my organisation and I am not going to compromise for any post, because my conviction is above everything else for me.”

Responding to his claims, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Sunday said that Gadkari was “expressing his heartfelt desire to be on the top chair, using the excuse of Opposition parties he is sending a message to [Prime Minister Narendra] Modiji”.

In a post on X, she added that the Opposition INDIA bloc had “very capable leaders” and would not want to borrow one from the BJP.