Union minister and senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari on Sunday told a gathering of politicians that one should stick to an ideology and avoid party-switching "like rats jumping from a sinking ship".
He also said the history will not be written by such opportunists but by those who stuck to their ideologies despite facing hardships.
Incidentally, the BJP is in the midst of an influx of opposition leaders in the run-up to the Maharashtra Assembly polls, likely to be held in September October.
Gadkari was addressing a gathering at the launch of 'Political Icons of Vidarbha', a coffee table book, organised by the Lokmat group.
"I feel people in politics should clearly understand the meaning of politics. Politics is not just power politics.
Leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Lokmanya Tilak, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Veer Savarkar did not indulge in power politics," he said.
"Gandhi ji pursued samajkaran, rashtrakaran and vikaskaran (politics of society, country and development)," he said.
"Don't compromise on principles, and keep patience," he said.
He said he never thought of leaving his party even when faced with hardships, but the current situation was such that people were changing parties according to who is in power.
"People run after those who come to power.
Today we are in power, they (party-hoppers) will come with us. Tomorrow if someone else attains power, they will run after them.
People just jump like rats from one side to another when aship starts sinking," he said.
"But history will not be written by these people.
It will be written by those who stuck to their ideologies despite facing hardships," the Union minister and Nagpur Lok Sabha MP asserted.
Speaking about Communist stalwart late AB Bardhan, who was Nagpur University Students Union president, Gadkari said, "I have a lot of respect for AB Bardhan though both of us followed different ideologies. He was such a dedicated leader.
His stature is unmatched when compared to any leader in Nagpur," he said.
Speaking of ideologies, Gadkari said the issue was not about differences in ideology, but about having no ideology at all.
Several leaders from the opposition Congress and NCP in poll-bound Maharashtra have joined either the BJP or the Sena in the recent weeks.
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