The PM’s penchant for disciplined conduct is at variance with the lackadaisical way in which Indian political parties tend to function
Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is taking its time to select its chief minister for Maharashtra, Narendra Modi is leaving his distinctive mark on political and other fields.
In politics, the Prime Minister has brushed aside the earlier bypoll setbacks by his successes in Maharashtra and Haryana. Although the BJP failed to get a majority in the western state, it made a few points which the party probably wanted to make for some time.
One was to cut the Shiv Sena down to size apparently because the BJP, and more specifically Modi, felt that the regional outfit did not deserve the earlier No. 1 position in the state after Bal Thackeray’s death.
The calculation probably is that a spell out of power, or in a subservient position in the government, will fatally erode the Sena’s base, enabling the BJP to win over the entire Hindutva vote.
In the process, Modi again administered a snub to L K Advani, who favoured continuing the earlier ties with the Sena. But it isn’t only the party’s “senior citizen” who was rebuffed.
Even Nitin Gadkari was at the receiving end of a mild reprimand because of the amateurish expressions of support for his claim to be chief minister by some of his followers.
After that, it took the union transport minister less than 24 hours to say that he was not interested in moving to Mumbai, thereby enhancing the prospects of the front-runner, Devendra Fadnavis.
These events point to Modi’s penchant for disciplined conduct which is at variance with the lackadaisical way in which Indian political parties tend to function.
Modi has also shown that he does not care much for the standard caste- and community-based norms while selecting chief ministers.
This deviation from set patterns was evident from the nomination of Manohar Lal Khattar as Haryana chief minister although he is not a Jat, a dominant community which gave the state its last two chief ministers, Om Prakash Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress. Modi is able to adopt such a non-conventional approach because of his awareness that the voters have chosen him for his development agenda and not because of what is known as “identity” politics based on caste and community.
In Maharashtra, for instance, he has been able to negate the Sena’s Marathi sub-nationalism to a considerable extent by promising economic growth.
It is the same in Haryana, a largely agricultural state which is eager to shed its backward image. What these developments emphasize is that Modi has become the sole dominant figure in the BJP. —IANS
Amulya Ganguli
