The Modifiers
- Modi’s spectacular victory puts Sangh in spot. They can no longer ignore him, ignore his popularity or his prime ministerial ambitions.
- Top RSS leadership willing, but the second-rung fear Modi in Delhi will push RSS, VHP to the margins like he did in Gujarat
- Sangh also feels it’s too early to think Modi. Five state assembly polls in 2013 bigger priority.
- BJP leadership likely to change after organisational polls, Gadkari unlikely to get a second term
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By the afternoon of December 20, incumbent chief minister Narendra Modi had not just won the popular vote in Gujarat but also managed a knockout in his personal battle within the BJP and RSS. Evidently, a sense of acceptance over Modi’s growing stature and claim over Delhi was beginning to settle in. Till just a day before, senior RSS leaders had expressed reservations about endorsing Modi’s national ambitions. By Thursday afternoon, the same reservation had been...
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