When Bhanutai Gadkari, a Jan Sangh worker, went on her house to house campaigns in Nagpur, she always took little Nitin with her. He would sit there, cradled comfortably on her hip, till Bhanutai got tired and passed him on to her friend Sumatitai. ?He started early. That was his initiation into politics,? says 85-year-old Sumatitai Sukalikar, a veteran Jan Sangh worker.

That early start has come in handy for the BJP, a party that is experimenting with a youthful face at the top. At 52, Nitin Jairam Gadkari has taken over as the youngest BJP president. That?s a long way from the days he rode his Lambretta scooter from his home in Nagpur?s old-fashioned Mahal locality, near the RSS headquarters, to the city?s newspaper offices, where he would hand over Jan Sangh press statements.

But apart from his age, Gadkari stood out for his administrative and organisational skills, his proximity to the RSS and his ability to straddle political divides?during the recent Maharashtra assembly elections, he befriended Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray with an eye on a post-election scenario where the BJP might need his party?s support to come to power.

As he takes centrestage in national politics, partymen say Gadkari has his task cut out?that of reviving a party that is smarting from two successive defeats in the Lok Sabha polls. His detractors say Gadkari is uninitiated in Hindi heartland politics.

But the man himself is using every opportunity to showcase that he is no pushover. In his first press conference in New Delhi last week after taking over as BJP president, Gadkari, not so subtly, flaunted his degrees?an M.Com, LLB and a degree in management.

?I am a student of management, and therefore, I would say that while financial audits are not that necessary, performance audits are,? he said.

However, detractors point to Gadkari?s track record in his home state, where the BJP fared poorly in the Lok Sabha polls, facing reverses in Gadkari?s own backyard of Vidarbha, and the subsequent assembly elections.

His critics also remind you that Gadkari, a Bramhin, is merely a ?sub-regional leader? with limited mass base, someone who has never fought a direct election.

But his supporters don?t see that as a problem. ?It is debatable who should be called a mass leader?one who is elected or one who can get others elected,? said a Gadkari supporter.

His ability as an administrator is also something his supporters rave about. Former Lok Sabha speaker and Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi, who was chief minister during Gadkari?s tenure as PWD minister in the erstwhile Shiv Sena-BJP government, recalls how Gadkari proved himself to be a ?tough administrator?, rewarding road contractors who met deadlines and punishing those who overshot them. As PWD minister, he built 55 flyovers in Mumbai and roads all over the state.

His friendships have helped cocoon Gadkari from possible crises. The Opposition never really made him uncomfortable over the Yogita Thakre case in May this year, when the seven-year old girl was found dead in a car in the courtyard of Gadkari?s Gadkariwada residence in Nagpur. Then home minister Jayant Patil even gave him a clean chit in the Assembly.

His Purti Sugar Industries was embroiled in a controversy for not selling power to the state electricity board as is obligatory. Gadkari preferred to sell it to private companies.

Also, a few years ago, his journalist-turned-adviser friend Prakash Deshpande died mysteriously, when he fell from a train compartment while on his way from Mumbai to Nagpur. Speculation was that Deshpande was allegedly carrying large amounts of party funds. But the matter subsided eventually.

Moreover, his rivalry with BJP?s Maharashtra strongman and Beed MP Gopinath Munde over controlling the state BJP is well known. BJP insiders speak of how Gadkari, after the death of Munde?s brother-in-law Pramod Mahajan, tried to edge out Munde, something that irked supporters of the OBC leader.

Now with Gadkari in Delhi, he will certainly not miss those run-ins with his bete noir. But he will miss Mumbai for other reasons?the pani puri that he is know to relish from a certain vendor on Bandra?s Hill Road and the salad from a local restaurant nearby will be less accessible, say his friends.