Playing for high stakes, the Bharatiya Janata Party took
a gamble in the only State where casinos are legal, by naming Gujarat
Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the party’s face for the 2014 general
election.
Though on paper Mr. Modi has been appointed
Chairman of the National Election Campaign Committee, the categorical
speeches made by BJP leaders at a workers’ meeting later on Sunday
evening left nothing to imagination that the party leadership considers
him the best bet to take on the UPA.
Minutes after
BJP president Rajnath Singh announced the decision here at the end of
the two-day National Executive meeting, in the presence of Leader of the
Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her counterpart in the
Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, the Gujarat Chief Minister tweeted that he
called up senior leader L.K. Advani and got his blessings for the new
job.
The anointment was preceded by hours of
agonising backdoor negotiations to bring on board sulking leaders,
including Mr. Advani who skipped the meeting on grounds of ill-health.
The news of a video conference from New Delhi by Mr. Advani to a
gathering in Jaipur and his earlier blog has not gone unnoticed here.
According
to sources, the RSS played a key role in pushing for Mr. Modi despite
resistance from influential senior leaders. Mr. Advani is the only
visible face of those who opposed the elevation of the Gujarat Chief
Minister but there were several others, including the former party
president, Murli Manohar Joshi, who were unyielding till the end.
BJP
leaders concede that Mr. Modi has won a decisive victory within the
party in the power game ahead of the 2014 election. The harder part for
the party and his supporters would be getting on board NDA constituents.
So far only Shiromani Akali Dal, the oldest electoral ally of the BJP,
has expressed support for Mr. Modi.
The JD (U) is
already on record that it would rather walk out of the NDA than accept
Mr. Modi as the prime ministerial candidate.
Sticking to the decision of its supremo, the late Bal Thackeray, the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray has backed Ms. Swaraj.
The
manoeuvrings within the party apart, a meeting of the BJP workers of
the Goa unit addressed by Mr. Singh and Mr. Modi displayed a great deal
on the changed power equations within the BJP.
It was
organised specially to showcase Mr. Modi not just to the party workers
but for the rest of the country, knowing fully well it would be telecast
live on all news channels. Ms. Swaraj was among those who were billed
to address the meeting but she could not attend it as she had a flight
to catch.
All those aligned against Mr. Modi barring
general secretary Ananth Kumar were conspicuous by their absence at the
meeting held at the packed community hall. Amid chants of
desh ki neta kaisa ho, Narendra Modi jaise ho
(nation’s leader should be like Narendra Modi), Mr. Jaitley set the ball
rolling by congratulating the party president for giving a ‘new
direction’ to the politics of the country with his visionary decision to
put Mr. Modi in the forefront of the party campaign. “Rajnathji has
demonstrated true qualities of a leader by recognising the mood among
the party workers and the people of the country.”
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