Mumbai, Dec 26 (IANS) Newly-appointed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari Saturday expressed confidence that the saffron alliance will sweep to power at the centre and in Maharashtra in the next elections.

Addressing party workers here Saturday evening, Gadkari said that the party had won in both the places earlier and ’shall win in the future’.

‘We are confident that we shall unfurl the party flag in parliament,’ Gadkari said amidst a thunderous round of applause. The next general election is due only in 2014.

Referring to Maharashtra, he said that though the party along with its ally, Shiv Sena, lost out in the April assembly elections, the next time around five years hence, the BJP will increase its strength and regain power.

‘In the next elections, we shall cross the figure of 100 assembly seats in Maharashtra. We shall work hard for this,’ he maintained.

Referring to his elevation to the top post in the party and that of his colleague Gopinath Munde, who is now the BJP’s deputy leader in Lok Sabha, he said that the party has entrusted them with ‘very important responsibilities and we would use it to strengthen the BJP across the country’.

Ealier, Gadkari was accorded an enthusiastic reception by party workers at the BJP state headquarters at Nariman Point.

Soon after his arrival, Gadkari went to Shivaji Park and garlanded the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji, paid homage to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s memorial Chaitybhoomi and the Veer Savarkar Memorial, before praying at the famous Siddhi Vinayak Temple in Prabhadevi.

Gadkari is on his first visit to Mumbai after taking over as the party chief last week in New Delhi.