New Delhi, Nov. 22: The affable Nitin Gadkari has been around as BJP president for almost two years but finance minister Pranab Mukherjee seems to have “discovered” him only yesterday.

Gadkari the potential facilitator, that is.

A note of bonhomie was struck over a lunch that Pranab hosted for the BJP chief. The leader of the Lok Sabha did not invite the Opposition party’s leaders in Parliament: L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley.

Sources close to Pranab and Gadkari said the duo discussed a “range of issues”, including the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) and direct tax code (DTC) regimes.

While nothing tangible transpired, the sources described the talks at Pranab’s home as an “ice-breaker”. They said the meeting was the outcome of several factors.

“Our reading is that the BJP president is in favour of GST and DTC but sections in his party, including some chief ministers, are not. We hope he will bring them round,” a Congress minister said.

The government hopes to use the fledgling Gadkari-Pranab amity to get the BJP to help pass the Lokpal, GST and DTC bills.

The Congress believes that Gadkari has lately become “interventionist” after initially giving the impression that he would only mind the party organisation and let Sushma and Jaitley run parliamentary affairs.

Since the monsoon session, he has been attending the bi-weekly parliamentary party meetings (held when the House sits) and subtly nudging the leaders to go for more confrontation on corruption issues.

Besides, Gadkari happens to be the BJP’s main conduit with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which holds the veto on crucial matters relating to the party organisation and the parliamentary wing.

It is understood that at the recent India Economic Summit in Mumbai, industry leaders including Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani had prodded the UPA to fast-track policy “reforms” in critical areas by evolving a political consensus. Ambani was quoted in the media saying: “Just because we live in a democracy doesn’t mean that we should feel paralysed.... Both the central and state governments need to align and move faster.”

Sources said the BJP chief had a grouse against the UPA managers. He felt that they, instead of “substantively” engaging his party on policy issues, confined themselves to interacting with the House Opposition leaders on floor management when Parliament was in session. All the while, they allowed leaders like Digvijaya Singh to “freely target” the Sangh.