BJP campaign to extol Modi's development agenda

Impressed by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s achievements, the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to use him as a poster boy in its campaign for “good governance, development and security” during the coming Lok Sabha elections.

Modi’s record has so impressed L K Advani, the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, that, of late, he misses no chance to praise him, be it at the election rallies or public functions.

Advani, writing in his blog recently, showered praises on Modi for getting Rs 12 lakh crore investment into the state in times of economic slowdown at the January 13 investors’ summit in Ahmedabad. “What accounts for Narendrabhai’s success? The answer is simple: he exemplifies the BJP’s commitment to good governance, development and security,’’ he said in the blog.

Speaking before the country’s top business leaders at a recent Ficci summit here, Advani made it clear that he wished to “develop all the states and entire India on the lines of Gujarat”.

A day before that, at a meeting of BJP workers and supporters, Advani linked his ambition of making every Indian computer-literate to Modi’s scheme. Gujarat’s 13,000 villages have been provided with broadband internet facility, while the remaining 5,000 villages would also get it soon.

Party sources said that Advani, while praising Modi at several inhouse meetings, had said that Modi’s achievement should not only be seen in terms of meeting development targets and launching of innovative schemes aimed at improving the living standards of people but also in being able to sustain his political stability by managing to win a landslide victory in the Assembly elections last year.

According to a senior party leader, Advani and BJP President Rajnath Singh had briefed them recently about the Modi phenomenon. “Modi’s way of governance is what the BJP should aim at in the rest of the country, we were told,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, echoing Modi’s line on Mumbai attacks, Advani today said in Parliament that they could not have taken place without local support.