Is Narendra Modi set to be projected as the BJP’s candidate for Prime
Minister in 2014? The media is looking for clues in everything he’s done or
uttered since his expected victory last week in the Gujarat assembly elections.
The fact that the first address he delivered after the results was in Hindi,
not in Gujarati, is being parsed as a prominent straw in the wind, and so is
the fact that he has committed to visit Delhi on December 27, a day after his
oath-taking in Gandhinagar as Chief Minister, never mind that it is a
pre-scheduled meeting of state chief ministers. Commentators have even counted
that Modi used the word 'DESH' 24 times in his 45-minute speech,
and so, they have speculated, it is South Bloc that must be looming large
within his ken. It is being said that his victory speech is full of lines that
are pregnant with meaning, such as, mein khel Dilli se jitna chahta
tha, aaj wo khel janta ne mujhe jita diya (the game that I wanted to
win from Delhi is the one that the people have made me win today). He also
sought apologies if he had done anything wrong. But made no reference to any
incident or act leaving his supporters to claim that he had done what was
required.
