Whatever little confusion that prevailed over the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections was over by Monday evening. The resistance or reservations over Narendra Modi being formally declared as the Party’s Prime Ministerial candidate ahead of the assembly elections in five states in November next ended after the RSS appeal to the senior leaders of the Party notably L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj to accept the decision that favoured Modi for the top post in case the BJP wins the polls in 2014.
Resistance from certain quarters to delay the formal
announcement of Modi’s name was due to obvious reasons. Some Party leaders
wanted the field to remain open till the outcome of the polls. But after having
Modi appointed to head the Elections Campaign Committee at the Goa meet, there
was no point in delaying the decision since it was creating confusion in the
rank and file of the Party besides giving the Opposition, the Congress Party in
particular a platform to attack Modi and the BJP. Once the decision is
announced formally, it is matter of time, the air will be clear.
It is interesting to note that the Congress leaders
have been saying that they are not worried or bothered about Narendra Modi
being the BJP’s face of Prime Minister. Jairam Ramesh, a Minister in the UPA
Government and a strategist of the Congress Party says that in India “..it is
political parties that fight elections and not individuals. Indian electoral
system is not like America”. Everyone knows it. We don’t have Presidential form
of government ours is Westminster Parliamentary system that we adopted after
independence from the British democracy. One may ask Ramesh if that be the case
then why this hue and cry by the Congress over Narendra Modi? There is a chorus
of criticism and all out offensive against Modi whenever he says something. This only shows the sign
of nervousness in the ruling Party camp.
I think it is the right decision of the Sangh Parivar
to put the seal of approval on one name to be projected as the BJP’s future
leader of the Parliamentary Party.
Name and individuals do matter in elections. A year
ahead of 1996 Lok Sabha elections, it was L K Advani who had publicly declared
that Atal Behari Vajpayee would be the Prime Minister in case BJP was voted to
power at the Centre. In the successive three Lok Sabha elections of 1998, 1999
and 2004 it was Vajpayee again the Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP. In
the last Lok Sabha elections in 2009, L K Advani was formally declared the
Party’s Prime Minister in waiting. The entire campaign ran with Advani as the
leader. Why then this ambiguity over the name this time? Why the BJP should
hold the name of its candidate for the Prime Minister office?
There are many able leaders in the Party who are
competent and qualified to become Prime Minister. Nobody can deny the
contribution and role of leaders like Atal Behari Vajpayee, Murli Manohar Joshi
and L K Advani in building the Party brick by brick taking it to the Centre of
power in New Delhi. But in the present context, Modi is by far the most popular
leader of the BJP. It is in the larger interest of the Party that he is
officially named as the BJP candidate for the Prime Minister’s Office.
~R. K. Sinha
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