AHMEDABAD: Narendra Modi will not only be the Chief Minister of Gujarat for a third straight term, but he has won for his party a bigger mandate than last time in the elections. Mr Modi now looks set to win 123 of Gujarat’s 182 assembly seats, six more than his 2007 tally of 117 seats.
He needed only 92 of those seats to form government. But a big winning margin was important for Mr Modi; it will give legitimacy to his claim to a bigger role at the national stage. At the party office in Ahmedabad, his celebrating supporters seem clear where he is headed next. They held up posters that said, “This is the trailer, watch the film in 2014” and “CM in 2012, PM in 2014” and even “Hit & Fit for PM.”
Many in the BJP have been seeking that bigger role for Mr Modi and there has been much talk of him being projected as the party’s candidate for Prime Minister in the 2014 general elections. The leadership in Delhi was less ready to talk about that just yet. Cheering the Gujarat win senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad would only say, “Modi bhai has always been an important leader in the BJP… We are not a dynastic party which is led by a Yuvaraj. We function in a pure democratic fashion.”
Mr Modi reportedly wanted a bigger win to get more bargaining power; also within his own party, where in an internal power struggle, many senior leaders are said to be wary of Mr Modi’s attempt to come to the national stage.
The Congress’ celebration of managing to contain Mr Modi proved embarrassingly premature. A few hours into counting of votes today, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said, “The Congress is a clear winner in Gujarat, we have been able to contain BJP and Modi to under 117 seats.” At that time, 117 seemed a stretch for Mr Modi, but he soon surged ahead.
In consonance, the Chief Minister has won his own election in Maninagar constituency of Ahmedabad by a whopping 86,373 votes, defeating political debutante Shweta Bhatt, the wife of Sanjiv Bhatt, the senior policeman who went against Mr Modi in Gujarat riots cases. Mr Modi had in 2007 won by 75,000 votes.
There is more ignominy for the Congress – many of its major leaders have lost their elections, including the Congress Legislature Party leader Shaktisinh Gohil and three MPs that it had fielded – Kunvarji Bavalia, Somabhai G Patel and Vitthal Radadia, who recently gained notoreity for brandishing a gun at a toll booth attendant.
BJP rebel and former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel has won his election from Visavadar, but his Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP), expected to play spoilsport for Mr Modi in Saurashtra, failed to make a dent.
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