Modi strikes a chord with Mumbai Gujaratis

Gujarat's high-profile Chief Minister Narendra Modi is trying hard to enter the league of national leaders.

His speech in Mumbai on Thursday had just the right mix of elements to lure the BJP's middle class urban constituency"" development issues, anti-terrorism rhetoric and opposition bashing, especially the references to Sonia Gandhi and the Congress.

More importantly, the function, organised by a city-based organisation the Vande Matarm Foundation to felicitate Modi as the 'best performing' chief minister in the country, can be recalled as the one that marks Modi's entry into the national league of BJP leaders.

Speakers in the function, which included BJP national general secretary Gopinath Munde, state BJP president Nitin Gadkari and Shiv Sena's working president Uddhav Thackeray, assured the crowds that "if the BJP-Sena combine comes to power in the state" it will follow the "Modi pattern" of development.

A better part of Modi's speech, which went on for an hour and a half, described all the work his government had done to improve the agricultural productivity, power situation, health care, education of girls etc. in the state.

He refrained from his favorite pastime of minority bashing, instead tried to project himself as a mature political leader.

When asked about the Ramsetu controversy by the crowd, which comprised mostly Gujaratis in Mumbai, he started with the issue of the encounter of Sohrabuddin and warned Congressmen that Sohrabuddin's 'janaza' (funeral procession) will not take them to Gandhinagar (Gujrat's administrative capital).

Calling the Ramsetu issue as a battle between Ram and Rome, he said: "The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is trying to fulfil the wishes of Ravana who wanted this setu to be destroyed".

The function was also an opportunity for bonding for the two saffron partners whose relationship had been strained in the recent times.

Both the alliance partners swore by Hindutva and promised to remain united. While Munde asked for the Shiv Sena's help to make Modi chief minister again, Uddhav Thackeray said the Sena would stand by the BJP through thick andthin.

A senior BJP leader said Modi was the most popular leader of the party after Vajpayee and Advani. "Today's speech proved that the party will use his services extensively if the country goes for mid-term polls", he said.