Call in BJP for Narendra Modi as PM grows louder

NEW DELHI/AHMEDABAD: First it was Arun Shourie, now it's Arun Jaitley — both of them want Narendra Modi as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate after L K Advani. Coming bang in the middle of an election in which Advani is the BJP's candidate for the top job, the search for Advani's successor has set tongues wagging—has the BJP, or a section of the party, already thrown in the towel and is it looking ahead?

Like Shourie, Jaitley made it plain that there is no shift from Advani's projection as the prime ministerial candidate for 2009, but his support for Modi in Vadodara is bound to fuel a debate and controversy, inviting caustic inquiries from the Congress about whether the BJP was hunting for an insurance policy.

Asked about his views on Shourie's comments, Jaitley said, "I, along with other BJP workers, will be very happy if Shourie's wishes would come true." However, he took care to add that "at present, BJP's prime ministerial candidate is Advani". He would be happy, he said, if Modi became the PM after Advani.

Jaitley's claim that BJP workers too would be "very happy" with Modi succeeding Advani would make it appear that the momentum is growing for Modi within the BJP. As a senior bureaucrat reputed to be close to Modi said in Ahmedabad, "Five years is a long time in politics. I think he (Modi) is in a hurry to go to Delhi."

Modi at the helm of the BJP has the potential of changing the party—its "nationalist" character would certainly get burnished, even if its current allies could get a trifle uneasy. Nitish Kumar, for instance, was recently quoted as saying that he would not like to share an election platform with Modi.

The Modi camp seems to have sensed the allies' restiveness. It's said that after the reports appeared, Nitish Kumar called up Advani to say he was misquoted and, if need be, he could talk to Modi. Advani apparently communicated this to Modi and then got back to Nitish to say Modi had not misunderstood the reports.

It's also being pointed out that Modi is mending his fences with the RSS and the Sangh parivar, which were upset by the demolition of 200 illegal temples in Gandhinagar, provoking VHP chief Ashok Singhal to call Modi, "Mahmud of Ghazni". On Friday, Singhal clarified that he was only "joking".