Ascent of Narendra Modi and while LK Advani steals the thunder!

The Goa convention of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) ended on 9th June amid high drama. The so called 'party with a difference' came out of the convention as a 'party with differences'. Narendra Modi, the chief minister and BJP strongman from Gujarat was made the chairman of the 2014 election strategy committee of BJP and he emerged as as a strong prime ministerial candidate. Many in the party rejoiced and many looked gloomy.

NaMo, Rajnath Singh, Advani

What ever said and done, love him or hate him, you cannot ignore Narendra Modi and his elevation brought fore the dissensions that simmered beneath the surface of the BJP. Though there were many a dissident murmurs and also large scale absenteeism at the National Executive conclave, real action began when the 85 year old BJP veteran Lal Krishna Advani, as a protest to what he called divergent path that new BJP leadership had taken from the original ideology of BJP, resigned from all posts of BJP. Whether he perceived the GOA convention as a Go Out Advani convention or he really still thinks of himself as a prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections, one could not fathom out.

Narendra Modi / Nitesh Kumar

But what it did was, it stole Narendra Bhai Modi's thunder and stirred a hornet's nest. Janta Dal (United), a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) of which BJP is the largest political party threatened to pull out of the 17 year old coalition alliance. Its leader, the chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar seen as a messiah of the minorities, who also has bigger political ambitions and who is a known Narendra Modi opponent wants an immediate political divorce from the NDA, a move which might help him score a few political points over BJP and more importantly the Congress, among the minorities and enhance and consolidate the minority vote bank. Every political party is seeking to derive the maximum political mileage from the seeming commotion that has erupted on the Indian political scene.

I am in the process of writing an article on Maharana Pratap for mydestination.com/rajasthan and the political scene during that period in Rajputana was so similar with commotion reigning supreme as present day. But the difference was the emergence of a strong personality like Maharana Pratap which helped the state of Mewar in the longer run, as it reinforced the image and prestige of the state. Would anyone like him emerge from today's political hotch potch? Anybody's guess. Till then keep enjoying the theater of the absurd!!