For a party that prides itself on discipline, consensus has seemed like a bridge too far for a rather long time. Late Thursday night, however, they seemed to have crossed that bridge for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is to be named the BJP's prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections after the party's parliamentary board meeting that begins at 5pm Friday.
The journey to this point was anything but smooth. On Thursday, the BJP looked like a party with deep differences as its leaders scurried about the capital for meeting after meeting. Almost all were closed door affairs, "individual" meetings to undo the Gujarat knot and anoint Modi as prime ministerial candidate.
Confusion was the major product as party circles buzzed this way or that through the day about party patriarch L.K. Advani's intransigence on the Modi move. He's going to derail it all, some said. Other insiders confidently told Mail Today that some of the leading lights from the Advani camp had softened their stand by Thursday evening, and "would go by party decision".
Late on Thursday, BJP heavy-hitters Rajnath Singh, Ananth Kumar, Nitin Gadkari were closeted with RSS pointman Ram Lal in a meeting that "would clear the air on whether a consensus is really in place". It was at this meeting that the decision to crown Modi was taken.
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, a prime ministerial hopeful herself and a leading light of the anti-Modi camp, cancelled a scheduled trip to Ambala. The decks had been cleared for Modi, though Swaraj said she would "emphasise her point of view" at the meeting.
Roadblocks
The hiccups that preceded the decision saw former deputy prime minister Advani making it clear that he is not against taking the issue to the parliamentary board meeting but wants "discussion before arriving at any decision"."Yeh charcha ka vishay hai (this is an issue of discussion)," a senior party leader was heard saying, quoting Advani's terse reaction to Modi's candidature. "He is maintaining that stand," the leader added.
Party president Rajnath Singh is in the eye of the storm, and looked understandably baffled on Thursday. He has been engaged in a string of meetings for the last two days in order to arrive at a consensus to avoid the embarrassment of a looming vote situation at the parliamentary board meeting.
Singh remains steadfast in his aversion to a vote, telling Mail Today: "We're a united party; nothing is decided by an individual. Everything is through a consensus, and many things are discussed by the parliamentary board."
Earlier in the day, Singh played down the talks about rifts within on Modi, saying: "We're building a consensus and will arrive at that soon. There is no place for rifts here.''
Some symptoms of rift-repair were obvious. Senior leader and Advani favourite Ananth Kumar was at Singh's side, and the pro-Modi camp couldn't hide its glee. Kumar, however, is the man spearheading the consensus drive within the party over the last two days, holding two separate meetings with Sushma Swaraj on Thursday, one before Singh met her in evening to break the ice, and one after.
Reacting to these two crucial meetings, a party insider said: "Things are softening up. Swaraj has been heard saying that she is not against a consensus on Modi but Advaniji must be on board."
Singh seems to have already struck a chord with anti-Modi biggie Murli Manohar Joshi, of whom it was being said that he has "given in to party's cause". That would leave Advani alone in the field.
Flip side
There's a flip side to that too. As a senior party leader explained: "There is a move to elevate Advani's stature to what Sonia Gandhi has in the UPA. He may be given a top slot as NDA chairperson, which will be a Cabinet rank position and work like a balm on the BJP patriarch."Advani has been irked by successive BJP presidents in the last five years, including Singh and Gadkari.
"He will always remain a mentor and a guide for the party and there is no difference of opinion with Advaniji," Rajnath Singh told Mail Today early on Thursday.
Gadkari also met Advani separately on Tuesday, a day before Rajnath met him.
Gujarat BJP workers are waiting to celebrate the coronation of Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate. However, unlike in the past, the frenzy of anticipatory celebration seems to have been put on hold with conscious effort, and the party functionaries are extremely guarded while fielding questions of the possible declaration.
"Whatever will be decided will be from Delhi and we have nothing to say from here," says Gujarat BJP spokesperson I.K. Jadeja.
BJP and Congress go to war over letters
By Mail Today Bureau in New Delhi
Your move, Modi: Information And Broadcasting
Minister Manish Tewari threw "F for Fake encounter" and "G for Genocide"
into the alphabet of abuse
After Narendra Modi's "A,B,C,D" jibe comes Manish Tewari's "F,G" taunt. The war of alphabets between the Congress and the BJP is getting more inventive with each passing day.
If the Gujarat chief minister's "A,B,C,D" meant Adarsh, Bofors, coal and damaad (son-in-law) scams of the UPA II, the Congress added "F,G" to the list, reminding Modi of "F" for fake encounter "G" for genocide in Gujarat.
The counter strike in the alphabetical war came from Information And Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari.
"I do not know whether they are learning the A, B, C, D of politics or they are not learning the X Y Z of politics, but I do know that the alphabetical primer that he (Modi) follows starts with F that stands for fake encounter and ends with G which stands for genocide," Tewari told reporters in Ludhiana on Wednesday.
Another Congress minister, Jairam Ramesh, compared Modi with English cricket captain Douglas Jardine, who adopted the controversial bodyline bowling technique to win the Ashes in the 1930s, while accusing the BJP's poll panel chief of playing "unfair politics".
"Mr Modi after Douglas Jardine... Mr Modi is a practitioner of bodyline and you know what Bill Woodfull (Austrailian Captain) said when bodyline was taking place, he said there are two teams out there and one of them is not playing cricket," said Ramesh, claiming the Congress will not repeat the brazen and abrasive campaign launched by Modi.
The internal strife in the BJP over making Modi the prime ministerial candidate also gave fodder to the Congress to take a dig at the saffron rivals. The Congress said the BJP was in a confused state as it was unable to manage the internal churnings over Modi who was "politically not relevant outside Gujarat".
"It is a confused party with a confused agenda and confused people. Those who are confused behave only this way," said Congress spokesperson Meem Afzal.
The Congress has mounted attacks on Modi ever since the latter taunted the ruling party at a rally in Jaipur on Monday.
Modi had said that the Congress will teach new alphabets to children where A will be Adarsh scam, B for Bofors, C coal scam and D damaad ke ghotale (son-in-law's scam).
The Gujarat chief minister was particularly harsh on the Congress in his public appearances, where he declared that his aim was to get rid of grand old party to make the country corruption-free.
