When 84-year-old BJP patriarch LK Advani announced on Wednesday in Nagpur that he is not in the race for the prime minister’s post during the general elections in 2014, it came as no surprise to several BJP functionaries in Gujarat.
Not only Modi supporters, even his detractors concede that Modi has been RSS’s choice as the ‘leader of future’ for quite some time now. The race has been flagged off, but Modi is yet to sprint several hurdles before he eventually engages in a duel with Congress scion Rahul Gandhi. Janata Dal (United)’s Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar and credited with turning around the fortunes of the state, is a strong contender for the post.
Convincing him might not be as lucid for the RSS as convincing Advani. And though, Modi is believed to be a ladies’ man, his charm alone would not be enough to contain the political ambitions of possible allies like Tamil Nadu CM, J Jayalalitha and Mayawati, the dalit ‘icon’ from Uttar Pradesh.
Significantly, Modi’s sudden overt exhibition of love lost for minority communities has far from deterred the RSS’s faith in their man.
And amongst the main reasons behind this unshakable faith is an open secret that Modi is believed to be the biggest financier for the saffron fronts in the country today, especially after the fall of Karnataka CM, BS Yeddyurappa.
