BJP anoints Gujarat CM to helm their party.
By Rajiv Theodore
NEW DELHI: It was just a formality. The BJP after brushing away the fears and reservations of a sulking party patriarch Lal Krishna Advani, anointed the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections, slated in May.
Soon after being nominated, Modi addressed hundreds of BJP workers and leaders late Friday night: “BJP has become the only ray of hope for the common people of our country. Only BJP will save this country which has fallen into deep despair”.
Modi harped back to the BJP premier Atal Behari Vajpayee’s era, ‘’unfortunately, last ten years have not only wiped out the efforts and hard work put up by Atalji, but it has pushed our country to such a low that no sector is left where people can have faith.”
Modi’s rise to fame and his arrival at the hot seat has been a clear indication that the BJP after losing two consecutive general elections had to revert to its ‘core values’ and project a hardliner like him to regain public support.
Advani’s stiff opposition to Modi’s nomination merely delayed the inevitable, but the juggernaut had traveled far too long to be reversed. His humble beginnings – the son of tea-stall owner on a rail platform – all add to the Modi magic.
But some political analysts say that by projecting Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, the BJP is taking the risk of a gamble. They say he still carries the stigma of being a divisive figure who ‘presided’ over the 2002 Gujarat riots where many Muslims lost their lives, although Modi’s direct involvement has not been established. But his detractors point out that he has not even expressed remorse at causing so much pain to a minority community and he cannot be made the prime minister of a country as diverse as India.
But Modi has won three consecutive elections in Gujarat, and has successfully projected himself as a good, no-nonsense administrator, who has a vision beyond his state.
The controversy driven rivals, the Congress-led UPA government, has a slew of corruption scandals, a listless Prime Minister and a clueless Rahul Gandhi who could be the PM candidate for the ruling party. Opinion polls show that despite being a controversial figure, Modi has far greater acceptance among the public than Rahul Gandhi for the prime minister’s post.
The energized BJP party is abuzz with who will replace Modi as head of the BJP election campaign committee as he cannot lead his own campaign. The post may go to leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley. He had held this responsibility in the 2009 polls.
As for now, Modi will have to divide time between Ahmedabad and New Delhi as he gets a firmer grip on the party’s campaign in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, crisscross the country for rallies.