By Faraz Ahmad, IANS
New Delhi : The world loves a winner, and the impressive electoral victory of Narendra Modi could persuade most National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners to support him as a prime ministerial candidate – though for now they have endorsed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) decision to have party leader L.K. Advani lead them into the next general election.
Modi’s victory in the Gujarat assembly elections has improved the relevance and acceptability of his leadership nationally within the NDA, leaders of parties in the multi-party alliance told IANS. After Modi’s victory, BJP’s allies and prospective allies like AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa, Akali Dal’s Sukhbir Singh Badal and Chief Ministers Naveen Patnaik (Orissa) and Nitish Kumar (Bihar) hailed him for the phenomenal win.
But with Modi himself making it public that he has no larger political ambitions, none of the NDA leaders are saying that they would prefer Modi to the old but faded warhorse Advani.
Even Shjv Sena leader and former central minister Anantrao Geete told IANS: “Modi is fine where he is, he is doing well as chief minister, please let him do good work there.”
But a Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader who did not want to be identified by name admitted: “At the end of the day what matters is how do we come to power, and who helps us in getting us back there.”
Asked if in that context, there would be any serious problem among the allies were Modi to lead the NDA alliance at a future date, he replied: “If you ask me, frankly no, though I doubt anyone of us will say this on record. That is also because Advani has been projected as the NDA leader.”
Even three months ago, such statements would have been considered sacrilegious for many in NDA, which when it agreed to be led by the BJP in the last decade made it clear that it could not accept that party’s Hindutva agenda. And Modi – more than perhaps anyone else – represents the vocal face of Hindutva politics in the country now.
Political observers recalled a similar journey the BJP had from when many political parties found it “untouchable” – to the time when its leadership of an anti-Congress national grouping was taken for granted. And for a long time, BJP’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee was considered a “moderate” compared to the “hardliner” Advani, who was anointed the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Dec 10, on the eve of the Gujarat polls.
Immediately thereafter the NDA allies happily accepted Advani – who ironically comes out as a moderate compared to Modi – as their joint leader for the next general elections.
Nevertheless, political analysts say that if he wants a larger role in national politics, Modi will have to work hard to make himself presentable to the national electorate that may not approve of his aggressive stand on many issues.
Also, Modi has to travel a long way within the BJP-Hindutva family where seniority matters a lot. Also, Modi’s appeal is mainly confined to one state for now.
But the fact remains that after the 2007 thumping election win in Gujraat, Modi will find many more takers across the political spectrum.And with Vajpayee out of the political race, “the same set of people who have happily rallied round Advani may rally round Modi tomorrow”, pointed out a Modi supporter in the BJP.