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Going by the current trends on the political scene, the 2014 General Elections is already generating some heat. If Rahul Gandhi was earlier being anointed as the next Prime Ministerial candidate or at least, a potential name for the post; the announcement of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the head of the BJP’s election campaign committee is seen as a step towards the journey to being the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The announcement of Modi’s elevation at the BJP’s national executive meet was no big surprise but LK Advani’s absence at the meet was a put on surprise. Much before the official announcement, there was every indication that the BJP would be chanting the NaMo chant: the rumble within the party with coteries centered around other top level leaders, Advani’s age factor but mostly, the growing popularity and ‘acceptance’ of Narendra Modi on the national political arena. A recent poll by a national newspaper showed that projected the possibility of Modi v/s Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister had more takers for the former over the later. And even though the poll was based on the readership of the said paper, there is no doubt that there are now takers for Modi amongst various constituents of the country: starting from young people to industrialists. While one poll limited to the readership of a national newspaper cannot reflect the mood of the entire country the results made news because 38% of those polled gave their vote for Modi while Rahul Gandhi as PM came in second with 23% of the votes followed incidentally by current PM Manmohan Singh with 14% votes and Advani with 6% votes.
The growing popularity of Narendra Modi put aptly as the Namo chant is an ambitious and adapting journey that no one would have thought possible given Modi’s track record in his early years in Gujarat with Godhra being a niggling thorn made profound by the growing cases of fake encounters in the state. Modi’s ascent is creatively modeled on Gujarat’s growth story and even though many subject experts, journalists and others have pointed out various aspects of the growth story as being not near to the truth, the fact is that Modi’s rise and acceptance is growing by the day. The official anointment sealed off Advani’s path to the seat of the PM in the event of a BJP led Government at the Center. And while the after effects of Advani’s reaction and former NDA allies to the news of Modi’s elevation are still coming in, the most entertaining and profound was the manner in which Advani reacted saying that there were personal agendas. In the social network scene and notably on Twiter, Advani without naming anyone recalled dictatorial personalities. And if Advani giving up his membership of the national executive, parliamentary board and central election committee’ was thought as being his exit, there may still be some face saving left to do which is why the RSS played agony aunt and brokered a semblance of some stability.
Notwithstanding the Adavani and Modi rumblings, the fact is that Modi at the helm disturbs the NDA’s attempt at secularism which is why the Janata Dal (United) has walked off. The Congress, which has been caught on the back-foot with an endless stream of scams and scary economic growth figures on one hand and infighting amongst its various leadership levels may find it difficult to get a nod at governance again post 2014. But in politics, they say is about the unexpected. Considering that the BJP is still into firefighting mode internally and NDA allies going into a thinking mode, the 2014 general elections has all ingredients of being an entertaining affair.
In Manipur too, there are already political moves being played out with an eye on the 2014 elections. The Congress is already into its political conventions that go into extolling the virtues of the party and its performance in the state while the BJP is in attacking mode. The stage looked set for the state’s own interesting political battle when it was announced that various political parties in the state would come together to field a common candidate against the Congress candidate but that has come to naught with some parties not wanting to hop on a platform where the BJP is on board.
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