Unstoppable Modi stops all detractors in their tracks

Unstoppable Modi stops all detractors in their tracks

Party leaders would be compelled to decide whether they want him as the face of the campaign for the next general elections. His stature and charisma have attained enviable heights. It is difficult for the party to ignore his claim.
As an immediate fallout, Modi’s re-election makes Nitin Gadkari the most insecure leader in the BJP. The party president has somehow managed to survive with the blessings of the Nagpur think tank. The RSS sarsanghchalak, Mohan Bhagwat, has been interfering in BJP affairs ever since the party lost the last general election in 2009.
Nitin Gadkari, a relatively unknown phenomenon outside Maharashtra, had been transplanted in Delhi’s high-stake politics by the Sangh with the intention of controlling and regulating the affairs of the BJP. If Gadkari does not accept Modi’s ascendance, he may not survive as party president despite the RSS backing. It is almost certain now that the next party president would have to echo the thoughts and principles espoused by Modi.
On the other hand, Modi is someone who detests interference. In Gujarat, he has gradually diminished the significance of the RSS and imposed his towering presence on other frontal organisations such as the Visva Hindu Parishad, which used to be quite powerful in Ahmedabad.
He had got rid of rival politicians in the party, gradually easing out the likes of Keshubhai Patel, Suresh Mehta, and Kashiram Rana. Modi is the sort of leader who has never shown much of an accommodating spirit towards party colleagues or has been respectful towards the RSS. He made the Gujarat BJP into a personal fiefdom, where none — not even the central leadership — was allowed to meddle.
But despite these difficulties, the BJP will soon realise that it has hardly any other option. The party has not grown geographically and remains an outfit with limited appeal in most southern and eastern states. If it does not embrace the Modi phenomenon and make him the face of the campaign in the days to come, it will have no other alternative but to accept the status quo.
None of the leaders, whether it is Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley or Gadkari, is capable of bringing a new out-of-the-box idea to the table. Modi will at least change the equations, the electoral dynamics. He will make Hindutva relevant all over again after the BJP has gradually moved away from its core ideology over the past decade.
Modi’s spectacular rise increases BJP’s anxieties in a number of ways. What would be the party’s relationship with the allies in the changed scenario?
Given that Nitish Kumar is allergic to Modi, the JD(U) may well walk out of the NDA coalition. Modi is not a leader who has ever given any hint that he wants to make himself universally acceptable.
In Ahmedabad, there is, however, great optimism. The Modi think tank asserts that their beloved chief minister would throw up surprises in the days to come. He will change his style of politics according to the altered circumstances.
The country may not get to see the same imposing, authoritarian Modi it had seen all this while in Gujarat. Only time will tell if the Modi phenomenon is equally viable in the rest of India. For the time being, it is certain that Modi is a phenomenon which can no longer be disregarded.
Gujarat CM Narendra Modi greets supporters in Ahmedabad on Thursday