Updated
New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS): Despite patriarch L.K. Advani's opposition, the BJP Friday formally declared Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi its prime ministerial candidate, and he promptly vowed to lead the party to victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
There were joyous scenes at the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters here as Modi, 62, one of the youngest in the country's political establishment, drove in to attend a meeting of the parliamentary board which decided to name him as its general for the parliamentary battle.
BJP president Rajnath Singh made the formal announcement at a media conference, and Modi pledged to do everything to ensure that the BJP again got to rule the world's largest democracy.
"I promise that in the 2014 election, the BJP will emerge victorious," a confident sounding Modi said flanked by a galaxy of senior colleagues, the notable absentee being his former mentor Advani.
"For this, the party will work hard and we will leave no stone unturned," said Modi in a brief speech after accepting sweets, bouquets and garlands from senior and junior colleagues.
He said the country was passing through a crisis.
"I am sure that people from Kashmir to Kanyakumari will vote for the lotus symbol," Modi said of the BJP's election symbol.
But like in June, when Advani had revolted against the BJP's decision to name Modi its election campaign chief, the former party leader stayed away from the parliamentary board meeting to express his displeasure over the decision to make Modi the prime ministerial candidate.
Even before the Gujarat chief minister flew into New Delhi, there were hectic parleys within the BJP establishment, with Rajnath Singh holding a string of meetings to convince everyone to fall in line. And everyone did -- except Advani, formerly Modi's mentor.
A political pundit aligned with the BJP hailed Friday's decision.
"This will make a huge difference to the BJP," G.V.L. Narasimha Rao told IANS. "Across the country, there is a very, very strong wave in support of Modi, even among non-traditional BJP supporters."
Like in the case of the now ailing Atal Bihari Vajpayee and later Advani, Modi's personal popularity far exceeded that of the party, Rao said.
"While the BJP got just about 18 percent of the votes in the last Lok Sabha election, Modi currently enjoys the support of more than 40 percent of voters. That will make all the difference," he said.
"This means that there is a huge mass which will vote for the BJP only if Modi leads the party. This is particularly true in critical states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar."
Modi, who once sold tea in a railway station in Gujarat, said it was a matter of pride that the BJP had catapulted him -- despite his origin from "a humble family" -- as the prime ministerial candidate.
In his four-minute speech in Hindi, Modi made it a point to pay tributes to Vajpayee and Advani.
Modi also underlined that he had the "blessings" of the BJP's allies, including the Akali Dal and Shiv Sena.
BJP Udupi district unit celebrates (photo: Umesh Marpalli)
Rajnath Singh added that "all our allies ... have given their backing" to Modi's candidature.
"We have always announced prime ministerial candidates... Seeing the national mood, we have decided that Narendra Modi will be our PM candidate in the Lok Sabha election."
Once Rajnath Singh made the announcement, BJP stalwarts, including those who were said to be against the announcement earlier, offered him garlands and bouquets.
Rajnath Singh and Modi hugged one another. Modi touched the feet of former president Murli Manohar Joshi as a mark of respect.
Profile: From tea vendor to PM candidate
For one who sold tea as a boy at a railway station in Gujarat, Narendra Modi has had a meteoric rise in Indian politics, catapulting from an untested chief minister of 2001 to the prime ministerial candidate in just 12 years.
Wedded to Hindutva - or the ideology of Hindu nationalism - from a young age, the 62-year-old Gujarat strongman, who evokes emotions like no other politician, is uncompromising vis-à-vis his goals, with an ability to transform every adversity into an opportunity, colleagues say.
He became the first 'pracharak' (campaigner) in Hindu rightwing politics to become a chief minister in only 13 years, taking control of one of India's most developed states though he had no administrative experience until then.
But in his long political innings, his biographers and critics have accused Modi of dumping those who helped him to go up the ladder. The latest in the list is Lal Krishna Advani, who as a star of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mentored Modi even when he was virtually unknown.
Political analyst G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, who knows Modi intimately, told IANS: "He is a man of firm conviction. He is extremely honest and hard working. He is not given to compromises, whatever the consequences. And Modi will never bend even for the sake of a temporary victory."
In complete contrast to now, Modi's early life was unremarkable.
Born into an ordinary lower middle class family in Mehsana district in Gujarat Sep 17, 1950, he was the third of four children. His father, Damodardas, made tea at a small shop. The son would take it in a kettle to sell it to train passengers at the Vadnagar railway station.
The family house was poorly ventilated and got little natural light, the sole kerosene lamp only adding to smoke and grime. Those who have known him say he was an average school student.
By his own admission, he was a devout Hindu who for over four decades has fasted during Navratri taking only water.
According to biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, Modi married young but the marriage was unconsummated. He kept the wedding a secret because otherwise he would not have become a 'pracharak' in the puritan Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).
Modi displayed skills at oratory even in school. He would often disappear from his family for months, staying in isolated places or wandering in the Himalayas. Once, he camped in a small Hindu temple in the Gir forest. He decisively broke away from his family in 1967.
Modi formally joined the RSS after the 1971 India-Pakistan war.
He moved to the RSS office in Delhi where his chores included, after waking up at 4 a.m., cleaning the office, making tea as well as breakfast and evening snacks for senior colleagues, and replying to mails. He would also clean utensils and sweep and clean the entire building.
Modi even washed his own clothes.
When Indira Gandhi declared emergency rule and jailed political foes, Modi - back in Gujarat by then -- went underground, tirelessly crisscrossed places on a Bajaj scooter, occasionally disguised, and printed and sent booklets against the central government to Delhi.
Even as he embraced politics, Modi graduated in political science from Delhi University and went on to do his Masters from Gujarat University.
Modi won the admiration of seniors for his hard work and efficiency. In 1987-88, he was deputed to the BJP's Gujarat unit as organizing secretary, marking his formal launch in mainstream politics.
Modi slowly took control of the BJP across the length and breadth of Gujarat, interacting intimately with activists, and played a key role in 1990 when Advani took out his Rath Yatra (chariot march) from Somnath to Ayodhya, an event that catapulted the BJP on to the national stage like never before.
Modi organised Murali Manohar Joshi's Kanyakumari-Srinagar Ekta Yatra (Unity March) in 1991 when Joshi was the party president.
But even as he gained political clout, he had his detractors. In 1992 he was sidelined in the Gujarat BJP. Seniors like Keshubhai Patel, Shankersinh Vaghela and Kanshiram Rana resented Modi's rise. He was said to boss over others. Over time, Modi was accused of exploiting differences among other leaders to his own benefit, eventually replacing Chief Minister Patel - whose confidant he was earlier -- in 2001.
Modi's present day identity is largely influenced by the 2002 communal violence when his government was widely blamed for conspiring with Hindu rioters against Muslims, over 1,000 of whom died in that carnage. The charge has stuck for over a decade.
Modi faced the prospect of being sacked only after a few months in office as then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was deeply anguished over the Gujarat violence. But Advani came to Modi's rescue. Modi later led the party to a remarkable win in 2002 - and has never looked back.
Over time, Modi became a symbol of development and the party's ability to deliver good governance. Large sections of the middle class began to root for him, especially for his I-can-do attitude and his resolve to fix the ills of the nation plaguing by multiple problems, including a languishing economy.
That was enough for the BJP, out of power for a decade, to prop up the determined Modi as its election campaign chief in June and, on Friday, as its prime ministerial candidate.
I am disappointed, Advani writes to Rajnath
New Delhi, Sep 13: He was instrumental in BJP's rise to power in the nineties and credited with its phenomenal growth, but L. K. Advani cut a lonely figure Friday as the party announced Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, even as he voiced his "anguish" and "disappointment" at the move.
Advani, 85, the seniormost leader in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has seemingly not found it easy to reconcile with the growing mobilisation around Modi in the party and impact of his rise on party's coalition prospects ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
He held out till the end but decided not to speak out publicly against Modi's elevation. In a terse letter to party president Rajnath Singh, Advani said he had expressed his "anguish" and "disappointment" to him when he come to invite him to the meeting of the party's parliamentary board.
Advani pointedly stayed away from the meeting that announced Modi's elevation, just as he had stayed from the national executive meeting in Goa in June when Modi was named the party campaign chief for the 2014 election.
Advani is working chairman of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and considered the leader most acceptable to present and potential allies of the party.
BJP sources said Advani, along with Sushma Swaraj, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, had conveyed to party leaders that any decision on prime ministerial candidate should be taken only after the assembly polls to five states later this year.
However, there was growing pressure on announcement of Modi as prime ministerial candidate from sections of senior party leaders and the party rank and file.
However, even as Sushma Swaraj and to an extent Murli Manohar Joshi sensed the party's mood and overwhelming sentiments in Modi's favour and fell in line, Advani decided to plough the lonely furrow.
Party sources admitted that part of Advani's reluctance to endorse Modi's elevation may have to do with his own ambitions.
"When the going was tough (for the party), Advani played the stellar role. He would not like to be forgotten when the going appears easy," a BJP leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told IANS.
A. S. Narang, a professor pf political science at the Indira Gandhi National Open University, said Advani wanted to play safe about his own ambitions ahead of Lok Sabha elections in the event of the BJP needing allies to take its tally past the half-way mark (272 seats) in the Lok Sabha.
"He is playing safe. If he says yes once (to Modi as prime ministerial candidate), then it may be difficult for him," Narang said, suggesting that many potential allies might not accept Modi's leadership.
"BJP is committing a blunder by announcing Modi as prime ministerial candidate so soon. Coalition is inevitable... I don't think Modi can lead to emergence of BJP as the largest party," said Subrata Mukherjee, a political analyst who taught at Delhi University.
Advani had quit key positions in the party in June, a day after the party president Rajnath Singh declared Modi to be chief of party's campaign committee for 2014 elections.
Advani relented after intervention of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and assurance by Rajnath Singh that his concerns about functioning of the party will be addressed.
Even as a large section of party, particularly its workers pitched for Modi, Advani sought to emphasise role of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in some of his speeches.
With Modi drawing crowds in different parts of the country, sections of party had been arguing that he was the party' s best bet for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and formalising his role as prime ministerial candidate will help build momentum against the United Progressive Alliance government.
Former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi's veiled criticism of Advani was seen by sections in the party as reflection of the mood of the rank and file.
"Advaniji has failed to gauge the public mood. Advaniji himself declared Atalji as PM candidate. Now also he could have done the same for Namo (Narendra Modi)," Sushil Modi had tweeted Wednesday night.
Advani was the BJP's prime ministerial candidate in 2009 polls but failed to take the party to power. The RSS, ideological fountainhead of BJP, later nudged Advani to assume role of mentor and encouraged a generational shift in the party.
Elevation of Modi is being seen as another manifestation of generational shift in the party and a signal of the end of the Atal-Advani era.