)
Three organisational hurdles are delaying the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s announcement of Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.
First, would Modi give up Gujarat and come to Delhi? Currently, leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, and party general secretary Amit Shah are handling the party's affairs in Delhi, on Modi's behalf. This is sending confusing signals to Members of Parliament (MPs) who have no special relationship with these two leaders and who don't have access to Modi.
The BJP, however unidimensional in its outlook, still runs as a much more collegial organisation than the Congress. The average BJP MP is not used to fiats from above and believes he means something. A system of counterweights and counterbalances still exists. Party MPs don't want that supplanted by the rule of cliques and cronies.
So, what a large part of the party wants is Modi to lead from the front, not operate from behind the scenes. Modi, for reasons understandable, is unwilling to give up control of Gujarat and move to Delhi. "He feels he is a target (of the central government) and if he is not in charge in Gandhinagar, he might be trapped," party sources say. The via media is he could have a deputy chief minister to manage things on a day-to-day basis, while he primarily operates from Delhi. This is still being worked out.
The second factor is inclusion. In the past, some leaders have been critical of Modi. He is known neither to forgive nor forget. So, there are MPs, as well as other leaders, who believe they would be targeted if he is elevated, simply because he might not have liked something they may have said at some point. How would their interest be guarded? Until there are some inbuilt systems, this concern would continue to invite resistance to his elevation.
Third, who would head the campaign committee, the most important body in an election? Obviously, it cannot be the designated prime ministerial candidate. In consultation with the party president, the campaign committee would decide the issues to be raised during the campaign, how to raise them, whom to deploy where, etc.
A large body within the party believes the decision to sanction the Chaurasi Kosi Parikrama ahead of the elections was a tactical blunder. The campaign committee chief should have intervened, told the Vishva Hindu Parishad the BJP had little or no credibility on the Ayodhya issue and that it should have been postponed, and counselled it to think of a new, original slogan.
But Modi was immersed in Gujarat affairs, the campaign committee didn't meet and the parikrama went ahead with little or no gain, except heightened polarisation, driving away even those Hindus who might have been aligned with the BJP but were revolted by the violence and division.
There is no consensus within the party on how these three objectives would be met. The day the consensus is reached, Modi would be announced the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.
