Modi appears to have firmly established the fact that he understands the popular pulse better than most others in his party.
NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi on Saturday marked his first formal presence as a strategist with the BJP central leadership.
With his resounding victory in the recent assembly elections, Modi appears to have firmly established the fact that he understands the popular pulse better than most others in his party, and it was now time for him to take on a new role within the organisational structure, albeit informally at this stage.
He landed in Delhi Saturday morning and was accorded a grand reception by Delhi BJP unit, which many in the party thought was befitting of his new-found stature. Modi then headed straight to LK Advani’s residence.
Advani had convened an informal meeting of senior leaders and Modi was a special invitee. Apart from the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, the other attendees included all the members of Parliamentary Board like party president Rajnath Singh, Jaswant Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, M Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar.
Arun Shourie was the other special invitee. By attending the meeting, Modi sought to convey a message to the Sangh parivar that he was willing to work with others, provided he was given a platform.
With the BJP victorious in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, Advani lost time in “getting down to the work” with a brainstorming session to evolve a strategy for the future.
A party leader who was present told DNA, “This is was an informal meeting, which Advaniji decided to call immediately after the election results. We exchanged ideas on variety of issues.”
The meeting dwelt on strategy with a reference to the Karnataka situation and how the NDA coalition could be further expanded. The meeting lasted for more than four hours.
Modi’s first visit to Delhi to attend a meeting of this nature is a significant development. He has never attended meetings of the Parliamentary Board or the Central Election Committee even though he was a member of both.
Rajnath Singh had taken his name off on the basis that no other chief minister has been a member of these committees. Modi did not forget to get the blessings of party patriarch and former Prime Minister, AB Vajpayee.
Though Modi was compelled by the Constitutional norms to take oath as CM on December 25, the party hailed it as a birthday gift to Vajpayee.
s_singh@dnaindia.net
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