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Narendra Modi's elevation as BJP's campaign chief for 2014 Lok Sabha elections today has strengthened his political legitimacy after struggling to shed the "communal" tag that has haunted the Gujarat Chief Minister since the 2002 riots.
Often called the BJP's poster boy, Modi is seen as India's most divisive politician--loved and loathed in equal measure-- but winning a record third term as chief minister of Gujarat last December has put the controversial politician straight in the national league and a prime ministerial contender of the saffron party.
63-year-old Modi has successfully established Gujarat as a thriving business model even as he apparently failed to brush off the 'taint' of having failed to be a good administrator during the post-Godhra riots.
Modi has been accused of deliberately not doing enough to stop the violence in which at least 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed and leaving the state communally polarized.
A brilliant speaker, Modi has been credited for bringing prosperity and development to Gujarat and enjoys support from some of India's top industrialists.
Considered to be business friendly, Modi, a bespectacled man with a trimmed white beard and who has a formidable reputation as a party organiser, has earned the image of a clean and efficient administrator who is corruption-free.
A pracharak for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Modi, who is always seen in his trademark half-sleeves kurta, enjoys a strong support from among senior leaders in the Sangh fountainhead.
He was the first general secretary of BJP in Ahmedabad and was elevated as the party's organizing secretary in 1992 after its victory in elections to Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.
When BJP formed its first government in Gujarat in 1996 he emerged a key aide of chief minister Keshubhai Patel.
