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Vadodara and Lucknow will go to the polls on Wednesday. But, for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates in the two constituencies, the challenge is more than only winning their respective seats.
Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh, the BJP candidates from Vadodara and Lucknow, respectively, hope to replicate what their party patriarchs – Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani – achieved in the 1980s and 1990s.
Vajpayee and Advani, working in tandem, brought the BJP from an abysmal two seats in 1984 to the principal opposition party in the Lok Sabha by 1991 and leading coalition governments at the Centre in the late 1990s – short-lived ones in 1996 and 1998 and a full-term government in 1999. Modi and Singh have worked as a tight-knit team, since the latter was anointed in January 2013, with blessings from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, as the BJP president to resurrect the party. Singh set about guiding party processes, helping Modi become the prime ministerial candidate.
Party insiders say Singh and Modi have worked as brothers with RSS Sarsanghachalak Mohan Bhagwat pitching in to iron out whatever rough spots that have cropped up. “Their understanding of and trust in each other is seamless. This is the reason that BJP campaign stuck to a plan despite dissatisfaction from some of the senior leaders,” a party leader says.
Singh, known since his days as a junior minister in the UP government in early 1990 for his uncanny ability to pick the winning horse, made Modi aide Amit Shah the UP in-charge of the party in June 2013, despite opposition from the UP unit.
Party leaders say the Modi-Singh partnership could be seen in the drafting of the party manifesto. Modi was upset, claims an expert associated with the drafting process, that drafting panel chief Murli Manohar Joshi hadn’t taken some of his ideas on board. Singh intervened to convince Joshi and others to rework the manifesto to reflect some of Modi’s vision. Both have also vied for Vajpayee’s mantle. Singh’s shifting to Lucknow, the seat that Vajpayee represented from 1991 to 2004, was part of this strategy. Modi also attempted to soften his hardline image but significantly gave up the effort after the concerted personal attack on him from the Congress.
Some within and many outside the party, particularly in Lucknow, have come to believe an aggressive Modi has strengthened Singh’s chances of making it to 7, Race Course Road. “Modi will be unacceptable to potential allies after his aggressive campaign,” Omkar Singh, a Lucknow-based political activist with the Samajwadi Party but a Thakur, says. The SP had withdrawn its candidate from Lucknow barely a month before elections, replacing him with what many thought to be a weaker candidate.
Omkar and many Thakurs across UP are convinced the BJP president would be able to fill “the large shoes” of Vajpayee if he wins in the Lucknow. Abki baar Bhajapa sarkar is the slogan often chanted by Singh’s supporters, who skip any mention of “Modi sarkar” on the pretext it might anger the substantial minorities in Lucknow. “Rajnath is the rightful heir of Vajpayee legacy. Modi is the Advani who may have brought the party the success it needed to reach the levers of powers but the top chair will elude him,” Satyabhan Shukla, a Congress worker, says.
On Monday, Modi asked Lucknow voters to support Singh and “realise the dream of Vajpayee”. The statement suggested all was well between the two “brothers”, despite speculation that Singh might pip Modi in the race to 7, RCR. “Two of us will together work to realise Atal ji’s dream,” Modi said. He stressed Rajnath and his “jodi” will work together to realise Atal ji’s dream.
Aflatoon Desai, a former Banaras Hindu University student leader who has seen Singh’s rise from the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in-charge of UP in the mid-1980s, believes Modi needs to be careful. “Rajnath Singh was known to blindly follow RSS instructions even then. He has shown unquestioning loyalty to the Sangh even at the cost of BJP’s or BJYM’s interests.”
Many in UP are convinced that the RSS, come end-May, would present Singh and not Modi as the face that would make many allies agree to support a BJP-led coalition.
