Home NaMo Sweepaya Gujarat Wants Modi, But Does He Want Only Gujarat? His Big Hat-Trick In State Will Fuel Ambitions Of Going National. Will It Be Rahul Vs Modi In 2014?

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Gujarat Wants Modi, But Does He Want Only Gujarat? His Big Hat-Trick In State Will Fuel Ambitions Of Going National. Will It Be Rahul Vs Modi In 2014?

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad/New Delhi:
“You should now get used to hearing me speak in Hindi,” Narendra Modi told the adulatory droves, gathered to celebrate his emphatic victory, when they insisted he speak in Gujarati.
    The sudden switch to Hindi for someone who spoke in little else but Gujarati throughout the election campaign led to an obvious interpretation – Modi, having scored a hat-trick, was now flashing his fortified claim to be the BJP’s choice for prime minister in 2014, thus setting the stage for a presidential-type race with Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha polls.
    Although Modi said he did not plan to camp in New Delhi and would visit the capital only for a day on December 27 for the National Development Council meet, his devotees were already serenading him with “desh ka neta kaisa ho, Narendra bhai jaisa ho” chants.
    Modi won 115 seats, just a couple short of his previous tally of 117 seats in the 2007 election. Modi’s victory came against the backdrop of indifference, even opposition, from a section of the RSS, hostility of an influential and tenacious faction of the civil society and Congress’s tacit understanding with BJP rebel Keshubhai Patel who sought to rally his community against the chief minister.
    The odds had looked tough during the campaign. But they wilted to emphasize the CM’s personal stamp on the decisive triumph which paled only in comparison to exit pollsters’ forecast of a Moditsunami. His Dabangg-3 act instantly triggered a clamour from the rank and file of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar for outfitting him as the prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections: something that will pit him in a direct contest with Rahul, who is expected to be given a bigger role next week.
    As a churn starts in the BJP on projecting Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, bets will be on whether Modi carries his tough Hindutva persona to Delhi or whether he sculpts himself afresh to enhance his acceptability. Either way, it will be a transformative moment for the BJP which can have repercussions for the polity as a whole.
    Printed placards declaring Modi the next PM surfaced in Ahmedabad on Thursday as soon as trends indicated a BJP win, indicating that his supporters had written the script for his acquiring a bigger role in national politics even before the results were out.
Next stop Delhi? BJP not so sure
    Making his victory speech in Hindi, Modi apologized, “If I have faltered anywhere in all these years”. Amid chants of “PM, PM” by supporters, he said he would visit Delhi on December 27. But BJP leaders, including Venkaiah Naidu, said the party had not yet finalized a PM candidate for the 2014 general elections and had many capable candidates. DECODING THE WIN
Tireless Campaigner | Modi addressed 250 rallies and reached out to 180 more locations through 3D projections. Sonia Gandhi addressed 7 and Rahul Gandhi 8 election meetings
Sweeps Urban Seats | Delimitation increased urban seats. BJP won 12 of 16 seats in Ahmedabad, all 12 in Surat, and all 5 in Vadodara
Safely home | Modi was perturbed by the surging crowds of women a few months back when the Congress started distributing lakhs of forms to the homeless, promising them subsidized housing. But the results in seats with mainly poor neighbourhoods show the Congress was building castles in the air Sad-Bhavana | The last assembly had 5 Muslim MLAs, the new one will have only two, both from Cong. The BJP didn’t give a ticket to any Muslim
Turnout Works | The unusually high voters’ turnout of 71.9% was the key to the BJP’s big win. This was almost 10% higher than in the previous two assembly polls. Modi told voters to come out and vote for him, not the candidates. The personality cult worked
Caste contours change | Call it social engineering, Modi style. With Leuva Patels swinging away from the BJP, especially under Keshubhai’s influence in Saurashtra, the OBCs consolidated around the BJP. This was seen as a reaction to the ganging up of the dominant Patels in the countryside
Exchange Programme | Cong, BJP wrested 30 seats from each other. Cong gained in Saurashtra and north Gujarat, conceded seats to BJP in central and south Gujarat. 5 ministers lost their seats, but so did Guj Cong president Arjun Modhwadia
Batting failure | Armed with a ‘bat’ as an election symbol, 84-year-old Keshubhai padded up for a match with Modi but flattered to deceive. He retired hurt, scoring only two but managed to inflict some body blows in Saurashtra where the BJP slipped by nine seats
Bharuch breached | The Congress won no seat in Bharuch district, home turf of Sonia’s political secretary Ahmed Patel. Of the five seats, the BJP won four and the JD(U) one. Modi targetted Patel by calling him Ahmed ‘Miyan’ Patel and mischievously claiming he was the Congress’ CM candidate.
Pro-incumbency | Modi’s strategy every time he faced an election was to drop most of the candidates — a good way to fight anti-incumbency at the local level. As the rejects would have switched over to Keshubhai, he decided to repeat most of the candidates and coined the word pro-incumbency
    Modi is the 13th politician to serve at least 3 consecutive terms as CM. Including him, there are 6 such CMs serving at present, including Tarun Gogoi (Assam), Naveen Patnaik (Orissa), Okram Ibobi Singh (Manipur), Manik Sarkar (Tripura) and Sheila Dikshit (Delhi)
    Gujarat is one of 7 states where Cong has been out of power for at least 20 years. The others are Bihar, Sikkim, Tripura, TN, UP and Bengal (barring a brief stint as junior coalition partner with Trinamool). These 7 states together account for 230 Lok Sabha seats