BJP Modivated  Satrap elevated inblow to oligarchs

RADHIKA RAMASESHAN

Panaji, June 9: The BJP today made Narendra Modi its spearhead for the general election, seeking to tap into a perceived national mood of "despair" through a polarising but poll-proven satrap who was for the first time given primacy over "parlour oligarchs" in Delhi. Egged on by electrified cadres and nudged by the RSS, the BJP ignored misgivings of the old guard as well as a key ally and appointed Modi chairman of the BJP's national campaign committee for the elections scheduled next year. Speaker after speaker in Goa — the "lucky" state which set the stage for his survival after the riots — spoke of the mood of negativity in the country after nine years of UPA rule. If the strategy seemed to be single-minded focus on the present to gloss over the past that carries the millstone of the riots, the mandate for Modi was to transform the alleged negative national mood into a positive vote for the BJP. "Well begun is half won," Modi, 62, told charged party workers after his elevation, which promises to mark a generation change in the BJP and the official end of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-L.K. Advani era. BJP president Rajnath and Rajya Sabha Opposition leader Arun Jaitley dropped enough hints at the workers' meeting that Modi would be declared the party's candidate for Prime Minister sooner than later. BJP sources said an announcement about the 2014 polls being contested under Modi's leadership was expected in New Delhi "very shortly". If and when that happens, Modi will wield a veto on candidate selection and emerge as a power centre over and above party apparatuses such as the central election committee and the parliamentary board. The BJP, the sources said, will go through the motions of sounding out allies and patriarch Advani on the prime ministerial candidate before making the choice public. Party hotheads had been demanding a simultaneous announcement today. But, the sources said, the leadership did not want to provoke more adverse headlines after Advani's sulk-induced absence from the Goa national executive meeting. However, the "consultations" with allies, including key partner Janata Dal (United), are expected to be a formality. A rethink on Modi appears unlikely even if Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar repeats his strictures about his Gujarat counterpart's "secular" credentials. "We do not require certificates of secularism from anyone. Every person in the BJP is as secular as the other," spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said, reflecting the aggressive mood that has set in after the leaders brushed away ideological cobwebs and personal reservations over Modi. Rajnath announced the decision on Modi shortly after the party's two-day national executive conclave ended. Seated by his side on a makeshift podium outside the venue were Lok Sabha Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj, Jaitley and seniors Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar. Their presence was meant to reinforce the message that Modi's elevation had been "consensual". Sushma, Naidu and Kumar are known acolytes of Advani, who had opposed Modi's promotion till the bitter end. However, Sushma, who had yesterday tried to delay a decision on Modi till Advani had ratified it, failed to show up at the workers' meeting, hosted by the Goa BJP at an indoor community hall. She had by then apparently left for Delhi. Modi's formal ascendancy on the national stage, via a tortuous process that unmasked a power struggle, was a groundbreaker for many reasons, sources said. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130610/jsp/frontpage/story_16990959.jsp#.UbX2bueBlA0 One, the BJP, like the Congress, had so far shown little appetite for promoting regional bosses. Any excuse in the past was good enough to snuff out the ambitions of state stars such as Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti or B.S. Yeddyurappa. Modi has been able to buck the trend because, like Uma, he has had long stints in Delhi and is familiar with its slippery power terrain while, unlike the sadhvi, avoiding perceptions of being overtly mercurial. More crucially, the pressure to anoint Modi came from below — from a cadre openly critical of the "disconnect" between the Delhi leadership and the perceived expectations and aspirations on the ground. "Left to themselves, the parlour oligarchs would not have lifted their little finger. They would have chanted the mantra of collective leadership and played their little games with Nitish Kumar and the Shiv Sena," an office-bearer said. "The cadres made it clear to the Delhi bosses that if they dithered, the workers would not work during the elections. In one voice, the message was: Modi or nothing." The suspicion was that Advani had pinned his hopes on the "secular" Nitish to propose his candidature despite his primacy in the Babri Masjid demolition. Sushma, on the other hand, had managed to endear herself to Sena chief Bal Thackeray months before he died. It seems that at one stage, Modi got peeved at the delay in his elevation but was persuaded by his supporters not to be deterred by the goings-on. Today, Jaitley praised the BJP's "innate democracy" and claimed that while leaders were decided by the parliamentary board, the "opinions of lakhs and crores of workers were taken on board". Rajnath said: "The scales of justice demanded that I should take this decision (on Modi). Jaitley felicitated me for taking the decision but he should congratulate the workers and people at large." The issue was decided late last night despite some "mild" reservations expressed by senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi, who never tires of letting on that he was Modi's original mentor because the latter had accompanied him on his 1991 rathyatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. The first fallout of the changing equations was a statement from "dissident" Yashwant Sinha who, like Advani, had skipped Goa. Sinha said Modi had "no match" in the Congress or elsewhere and that the only issue he had was with the decision being announced in Advani's absence.