Mumbai

The BJP stalwart was on 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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