Dinesh Kamath's Editorial (The genuine Lion) that was published in Newsband

The genuine Lion

Narendra Modi pulled off a third straight Assembly election victory in Gujarat. This victory has made the political future of Modi absolutely secure. He won for his party 130 of 182 seats — more than the BJP’s best ever tally of 127, achieved in 2002. Now Modi is aiming for higher gains. He is now being considered as the likely candidate for Indian Prime Minister’s post. Modi has joined the ranks of Mohanlal Sukhadia, Jyoti Basu, Sheila Dikshit and Naveen Patnaik in leading his party to victory in a State three times in a row.

Modi’s transition from obedient pracharak to cult figure will make a great novel. In Gujarat he got a colossus-like presence. With no credible leader in its ranks, the Congress once again fared miserably. BJP rank-and-file is now pushing Modi to take the long march to Delhi.

Bharatiya Janata Party supporters wore masks of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as they celebrated the victory of the party in the State Assembly elections, in Ahmedabad. Everybody is asking a common question: Will Modi become the BJP's prime ministerial candidate for 2014? The fact that he has registered his third decisive win is enough to get all the party's national leaders to brace themselves for a challenge.

In the Gujarat elections, Modi practically humbled the opposition. The Congress party was routed yet again, managing just 61 seats, while the Gujarat Parivartan Party’s Keshubhai Patel could get only two of its candidates elected.

After his victory, the Chief Minister Modi spoke in campaign mode in Hindi with an eye on a national audience. This proves that Modi is ambitious and is intending to be the PM of India. He thanked the people of Gujarat for “voting for development in the State and country.” Some of his supporters kept chanting “PM, PM” but Modi took care to reiterate his desire to work for the State for the “next five years.”

Though Modi’s supporters are taking the hat-trick he has delivered as a bugle call for a march to Delhi, the first sign that this would be no plain sailing was provided on Thursday itself by a key BJP ally, the Janata Dal (United). Its Gujarat state leader Vashist Narayan Singh declared that though the victory would strengthen the BJP as a party at the national level, the JD(U) was clear that the candidate for Prime Minister should have a secular image.

But the outcome of the elections is clearly a mandate for Narendra Modi, who had created a debate around “Modi versus Who” and the Congress had no answer to this. This is at state level. At National level he only has Rahul Gandhi as the competitor.

However, Modi has proved that he is the genuine Lion of Gujarat today and probably of India tomorrow.