With the various exit polls pointing to a clear Narender Modi-BJP victory in the assembly election, there is buzz in the party’s central office about how to leverage the man who has emerged the most important figure in the party gallery. There is also ambivalence about Modi on the way to become numero uno in the party.
As reward for his record victory, there is speculation that he could become the chairman of the national campaign committee. This would enable him to remain the chief minister of Gujarat as well, said an office-bearer speaking on condition of anonymity.
The strategy is to set up contest between Modi and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who is being projected as the spearhead of the Congress campaign in the 2014 general election. The BJP enthusiasts of Modi feel that the Gujarat strongman will make mincemeat of the Gandhi scion in a duel between the two. As a matter of fact, the BJP is disappointed that Gandhi ducked the contest in Gujarat by entering late into the campaign and that the Modi missed an opportunity to beat him in this round as well.
After December 20, the day Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh election results will be announced, there will be lot of activity in the party. It now seems certain that Nitin Gadkari will get his second term as president, but that will not be the important decision it seemed some time back. It was felt that the only way to anoint Modi at the national level was by making him the party president. That option appears now to become have redundant with the choice of making Modi the campaign committee chairman.
Asked as to who would replace Modi in Gujarat and who is the second most important person in the state BJP, the reticent office-bearer said that there is no second man in the state party hierarchy, and that Modi occupies all the slots from “1 to 1001”. Modi will not leave his chief minister’s office in Gandhinagar until after victory in the Lok Sabha election. It is for this reason that there is talk of giving him a role in the poll campaign without disturbing the set-up either in Gandhinagar or in New Delhi.
