Speculations are rife that though his Delhi dreams woke up to a crude reality after the poll fiasco, chief minister Narendra Modi's position as a party man will be on the rise nationally.
Speculations are rife that though his Delhi dreams woke up to a crude reality after the poll fiasco, chief minister Narendra Modi's position as a party man will be on the rise nationally. Though the possibility of him holding a key post in the ministry at the centre was dashed, Modi can grow more in the party by getting a 'key' position in near future, party insiders say.
Among BJP leaders, Modi had travelled the most in the country with a principle agenda of glorifying the party's image against the 'dynastic rule' of the Gandhi family and the Congress as well as harp on developments he had caused. However, he refrained from touching the touchy 'Hindutva' agenda during his public meetings. He was given a free hand during the campaigning. He addressed more then 300 public meetings. Indirectly, though Rajnath Singh is the party president and LK Advani was projected as the prime ministerial candidate, Modi had single-handedly shouldered all responsibilities of the saffron party.
Above all, it is reasoned that the top brass can hardly afford to cut short the few leaders who actually wield clout of mass support, the likes of Narendra Modi and Shivraj Singh Chauhan. "Modi is seen as someone who has the ability to stand up to Gandhi scion and a leader-in-grooming, Rahul," said a senior BJP leader. "At least for the present there is no one in BJP who could measure up to the young Gandhi," the leader said, adding that the veteran warhorse Advani had already taken a beating.
According to sources, when the inside rift starts to show amongst warfaring BJP leaders, nobody dared to touch Modi even when the big fishes, including Jashwant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and others, targeted both the party barons Advani and Singh in the executive council meeting of the party. Modi had put two books praising Advani in his personal capacity before media after the meeting concluded.
"This shows," the sources said, "that Modi enjoys a high stature within the party. He may be allotted a key post, probably not less than the national president, in the party looking at his organisational skills. Modi already showed his strength of development during the seven successful years of regime in the state."
Another party insider pointed out some more reasons that are working for Modi. "First, most of the insiders who raised the voice of rebellion, including Arun Shourie, and Jaswant Singh, had openly supported Modi's projection as the party's future prime ministerial candidature. They, of course, don't have much against the CM, the source said adding that, secondly, other detractors of Modi, including Sushma Swaraj, do not have much to grudge as they have been given important positions and they are thus happy with their posts," the sources added.
However, sources close to party leaders in Delhi claim that Modi had already done his homework before leaving for the national capital to attend the national executive meeting. "He has a decent network in Delhi and utilised it to fullest to divert any fire in his direction. Leaders right from Prakash Javdeker to B Ram in Sangh among many others support him overtly and Modi pulled all strings possible to ensure that nothing goes wrong," a party leader said. No surprises then that not a single word was uttered against Modi, at least not in the public domain, he added.
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