The former BJP president is an RSS favourite in the Cabinet, having been pulled out of Maharashtra to head the BJP in its most tumultuous phase. Gadkari was considered one of the most efficient ministers in the Maharashtra cabinet between 1995-1999 as Public Works Department minister and takes credit for the Mumbai-Pune expressway.
He is a staunch advocate of renewable energy and his company produces 36 MW of power every month from bio fuel.
He runs an approximately ₹500 crore business that is spread across Nagpur, Bhandara and Wardha. His company, Purti Group, includes three sugarcane factories.
Gadkari succeeded Rajnath Singh as BJP president and found it difficult to run the organisation with his unconventional business-like approach. He was dismissed by the media as a regional leader with a penchant for theatrics, an image he bolstered by breaking into a song and dance performance at a BJP national executive meeting in Indore in 2010.
Although he was pushed out of the race for a second term as BJP president in January 2013 because of a spate of media exposes on scandals and scams in his Purti Group which was raided by Income Tax authorities, Gadkari continues to be close to the RSS.