Nitin Gadkari is the senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and has been the Minister of Road Transport and Highways since 2019. He is also serving as the Union Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (2014), Shipping (2014 to 2019), Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (2017 to 2019) and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (2019 to 2021) in the successive Narendra Modi governments. Gadkari was the president of the BJP from 2009 to 2013. He has been a Lok Sabha member from the Nagpur constituency of Maharashtra for the last two terms. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Gadkari won the Nagpur seat by defeating Congress candidate Vilas Muttemwar with a margin of 2,84,848 votes. In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, Gadkari retained the Nagpur constituency by defeating Congress candidate Nana Patole with a margin of 2,16,009 votes. Gadkari was the Public Works minister in Maharashtra from 1995 to 1999 and also the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council from 1999 to 2005. Nitin Gadkari is again contesting from the Nagpur constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2024.