Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'NDA in two minds' that was published in Newsband

NDA in two minds

Most of the Indians feel that there is a need for a secular prime ministerial candidate. So it is doubtful whether they would accept Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate of the NDA in the coming elections. BJP will have to choose between its trump card Modi and a valuable ally the Janata Dal (U).

However, there is a section in the BJP which reckons that it would be better to stick with Modi who could bring in a greater tally of votes for it overall than last time (where it got 115 seats) than be held to ransom for a possible 20 seats which the JD(U) could bring with it.

If the BJP is planning to jettison allies like the JD(U), then it should look at a considerable increase in its vote share, something which does not look likely at the moment.

The Modi factor is also largely an untried one; it remains to be seen how much of a pan-India appeal the Gujarat chief minister will have. The NDA leadership while making it clear that it will not push Modi aside for any ally, seems to be focusing its energies on removing the UPA rather than coming up with an agenda that will catch people’s attention. Negative campaigns don’t always work too well as we have seen in the past.

NDA alliance is now under severe strain. It will require more than a bit of effort on BJP president Rajnath Singh’s part to smooth things over.

The road for prime ministerial candidate is not easy for Modi though, since many senior leaders in the party reportedly are not supporting for the same.

The recent developments in JD (U) shows that Nitish Kumar the chief minister of  Bihar, is not in favor of allowing Modi for the top post.

The winning of Gujarat assembly elections four times (third time consecutive) has boosted the chances of Modi for the top post - more than any other party leader inside BJP.

Thus it appears that either Rahul Gandhi, the vice president of Congress Party, or Narendra Modi, the BJP chief minister of Gujarat, could be the next Prime Minister of India.

However, if the NDA allies do not back Modi as the prime minister candidate, then the equation in the national politics may change in the coming days.

A few months back, one of the allies of NDA, Shiv Sena had also asked the BJP to declare the Prime Minister candidate.

Thus NDA may see split and leaving of its allies if they decide not to back the name of Modi as the Prime Minister candidate.