In BJP, tea seller is PM, newspaper hawker party chief and

The BJP is a party where a tea seller can become the prime minister, a newspaper hawker is made the president and a man living in a hut can get an opportunity to serve the people as their representative, Union minister Pratap Sarangi has said.

"This is the speciality about BJP," Sarangi said on Saturday while speaking at a function here where he and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan were felicitated by the party on their first visit to Odisha after taking over as Union ministers.

Stressing that he has been given a big responsibility by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sarangi said the prime minister has shown his trust in him.

 

"It is my duty to justify his trust," the Lok Sabha member from Balasore, who stands apart from a typical politician due to his simplicity and austere living.

Asserting that he never craved for a ministerial berth, the Union minister said that the post has given him a new responsibility to serve the people and it is not simply a status to celebrate.

"I never craved for a ministerial berth. It came on its own, bringing for me a big responsibility to serve the people better," Sarangi said.

Describing, the sequence of events that led to him taking oath as a Union minister on May 30, as an incredible experience, the 64-year-old BJP leader said party president Amit Shah had called him twice but he was unable to speak to Shah since he was not carrying his phone.

"Amit Shah Ji made at least two phone calls but was unable to speak to me as my phone was with another person. When I called back, he asked me to join the swearing in ceremony in the evening," said Sarangi, the first-time MP who was inducted into the Narendra Modi ministry.

"I was surprised, but Amit Shah Ji clearly told me that I will have to be there to take oath as a Union minister," the Minister of State for MSME and Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries said.

Sarangi also said he is grateful to God that he has given him this to serve people.