The BJP’s new chief would be less than pragmatic if he were to extend assurances to Modi of promoting him at the expense of others in the party
The BJP’s new chief would be less than pragmatic if he were to extend assurances to Modi of promoting him at the expense of others in the party
The two-hour-long meeting between the BJP’s newly appointed president Rajnath Singh and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has predictably given rise to instant media assessments which suggest that Mr Modi will now play a much bigger role in national party affairs than before, meaning he will constitute a key node whose thinking will have a bearing on the BJP’s selection of candidates in 2014.
This may be deemed to be a hasty overstatement and overdrawing of the picture on scanty evidence.
There has never been the smallest doubt that Mr Modi is a stalwart of the BJP in the post Vajpayee-Advani generation. But it is unthinkable that he would have reached that position in the eyes of Hindutva supporters were it not for his role in the post-Godhra situation in Gujarat.
It is precisely this which is apt to cause difficulties for the BJP as far as some of its NDA allies go. Mr Modi’s rivals in the BJP — even some of the other chief ministers from the party, besides some of its national leaders — are likely to leverage precisely this factor to cut Mr Modi down. The BJP’s new chief would, therefore, be less than pragmatic if he were to extend assurances to the Gujarat CM of promoting him at the expense of others in the party.
Nevertheless, as the new leader of the party, it was incumbent on Mr Singh to have a detailed conversation with
Mr Modi who, by all accounts, has emerged with a strong following among the BJP’s rank and file. Experienced man that he is, Mr Singh is no doubt keen to get rid of the impression that in his last stint as BJP chief he had problems pulling on with Mr Modi. If there are certain unwritten rules of the political game, no one need be surprised if Mr Singh engages in individual dialogue with some other BJP chief ministers as well. Not doing so can easily open up new factional fronts against him.
The first charge on Mr Singh is to reconfigure the party in a way that helps the BJP emerge as the leading party in the next general election. To this end it is logical that he first approaches BJP leaders of those states, like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where the party is deemed to be on a strong wicket — to consolidate the pluses. Last Sunday’s conversation with Mr Modi is likely to be a part of such an approach. Of necessity must the new BJP leader move with circumspection if he is to seek to reconcile the multiple factions operating not just within the BJP but also the RSS, the parent body of the BJP.
