Two days were Gujarat
centric in the national political scene. Narendra Modi resigned from the chief
minister’s post yesterday. A new leader was chosen and Gujarat
got its first female chief minister today. Like Modi, she, too, comes from a
humble background and is a self-made person. Hopefully, the Gujarat
story will continue unabated.
Also, given the kind of person and politician Narendra
Modi is, he is expected to continue making his presence felt in Gujarat even
while being in Delhi.
It is bound to happen if Mr. Modi sees Gujarat as the laboratory that prepared
him to efficiently govern the office of the prime minister of India.
Anyway, the business of political ups and downs and the minute-by-minute
chaos is back to Delhi.
Modi said goodbye to his Gujarat this afternoon and is in Delhi now to establish his base.
Reportedly, he was upset with lobbying for the ministerial
berths. That may deter the further efforts at BJP or NDA level but the
speculation over the sources based reports is going to make for the headlines
till the final announcements come.
But that will not be something affecting him after the
message of his ‘displeasure’ has been made public. What will be in his mind is
delivering the message to the masses that he is reading into the implications
of the clear mandate to the BJP, something that has put him in a firing line
that will start hitting from the day-1. And to handle this, he needs to being
fully prepared.
Indians have huge expectations from him and he would do
all in the days he is set to begin with the nation as its chief governing
officer, his acts, his words, his gestures and his decisions, to give the
countrymen (clear) signals that Modi is serious about walking the talk and is
already on the job.
Narendra Modi is going to take oath on May 26, 6 PM. In
between, there are long 90 hours that Modi is going to exploit fully to make it
as perfect a beginning as he can make.
Expect the developments toe the Modi line in the coming
days, including the good enough number of symbolic elements and public outreach
imagery.