The anointment of L K Advani as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Prime Ministerial candidate has offered certain things to be read in between the lines. It is certainly about the simmering fear among the central BJP leadership over the emergence of Narendra Modi as a larger than party figure.

There has been a growing discontent and uneasiness in BJP over the sidelining of their top leadership in the ongoing Gujarat election. One can hardly see any images of BJP’s top functionaries in the campaign. It has been all together a Modi-centric and Modi-driven one. The possibility of harping back to power in Gujarat has catapulted Modi as the unchallenged prince of Hindutva politics.

No other person from the saffron political outfit has been able to emerge as a political rival to the other crown prince of Hindutva politics – Advani.

Hindutva prince

With their expulsion from the party, firebrand leaders like Uma Bharati have become mere side players in Hindutva politics. Now with the emergence of Modi as champion of Hindutva necessitate the hastily anointment of Advani in contrast to the widely held view that BJP will go to general election again under the leadership of A B Vajpayee.

The grand plan was that, once they come back to power under the leadership of Vajpayee, the baton will be passed on to Advani as the natural successor and Vajpayee will be given an honourable and graceful exit in accordance with his stature. However, the ongoing Gujarat election and the possible outcome have forced the central BJP leadership to forget the basic decency of giving an honourable exit to Vajpayee.

The recent controversies over the “merchant of death” and Modi’s justification of killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh have galvanised his image as the central figure in Hindutva political circle. The Election Commission’s criticisms on Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s outburst and the flip-flop by the party over the same issue have worked in advantage of Modi.

The raking up of Hindutva in the ongoing election shows Modi’s ability in setting an agenda for Gujarat election without the help of the central leadership. Again his personal rapport with Uma Bharati made her to withdraw her candidates from the fray, thereby checking the fragmentation of and consolidation of Hindu votes which the BJP central leaderships failed in the last Uttar Pradesh assembly election.

This along with the Congress and Sonia’s backtracking proved to be the moving forces leading to the anointment of Advani. The emergence of Modi phenomenon in BJP even brought Advani baiter like M M Joshi and not-so-happy RSS to cheer the Advani anointment.

Other factors

The other compelling factors are obviously the health condition of Vajpayee. At the same time, the recent outburst of CPM leader Prakash Karat to prepare for the general elections has also made the BJP central leadership to move fast forward. The political calculations of the BJP is that with the Gujarat election Modi will certainly emerge as the rallying point for Hindutva politics and become an alternative centre of power in BJP.

Moreover, he will come across as the regional Loha and Vikas purush rolled into one.

As a suave and pragmatic politician Modi has made the new image to fight his political adversaries inside his own party and outside. His ability in forging the Loha and Vikas purush identities is a big blow to the BJP central leadership which failed to do the same. Though both Vajpayee and Advani have pan-Indian images, they remained as two distinct identities during their tenure in power. In fact Vajpyaee publicly took on these categorisation.

The election outcome in Gujarat is certainly going to be the turning point in Indian politics. If Modi manages to come back, it will be a record as nobody from any non-Congress political outfits except the Communists in West Bengal have ever won elections on a continuous basis. At the same time, it may lead to a larger power struggle inside the saffron political outfit over the leadership issue. It will totally depend on how maturely and sensitively the BJP central leadership will handle the outcome of the ongoing Gujarat election.

(The writer is a Professor in Political Science at national Law School of India University, Bangalore.)