New Delhi: The perplexed looks on the faces of senior BJP leaders said it all - the party's thumping victory in Gujarat under Narendra Modi had put paid to personal ambitions they may have secretly harboured.
Chief Minister Modi's commanding performance that defied all odds and predictions sealed not just victory but also virtually sealed the fate of many of his contemporaries who would have liked to project themselves as successors to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani.
Former prime minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee has opted for a life on the sidelines but his erstwhile deputy Lal Krishna Advani was announced as the party's prime ministerial candidate just before Gujarat went to polls. A party naming its prime ministerial candidate on the eve of provincial polls defied all logic. Modi's imperious show in Gujarat has now confirmed that the move was meant to preempt his emergence as a challenge to the central leadership.
Amid celebrations at the party's Ashoka Road office, office-bearers and party cadres appeared rattled and avoided questions.
Focus on team effort
"The BJP has won elections in Gujarat. It was a team effort and Narendra Modi has emerged the Man of the Match," said party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Rajnath Singh, the national president of the party, lost no time in terming the Gujarat result the party's victory and a triumph of its ideology. He rushed to congratulate the veteran duo Vajpayee and Advani, despite the fact that Vajpayee did not campaign in Gujarat at all and Advani leant heavily on Modi to ensure he retained his Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat from the state.
Party circles are agog with speculation that Modi is now poised to emerge as a threat to the other second generation leaders. The party is undecided over whether to use Modi as its star campaigner in four states, including BJP-ruled Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, besides Delhi, which go to polls next year.
At the same time, if his services are not utilised, the blame for the party's inability to retain power, which may ultimately dent its prospects in the 2009 general elections, may fall on Rajnath Singh and Advani.
Modi himself tried to end the debate by giving credit to the party workers and central leadership for the victory. However, those close to Modi in the party's central office point out that he may not angle for the top post in 2009, instead extending support to Advani, spreading his areas of influence and testing waters in other states before taking the big plunge.
