The BJP recently suspended five rebels out of the six who voted for the UPA candidate in the presidential poll. The party bosses in Delhi know that disciplinary action is not the solution to the problem. More than one-third of the BJP MLAs in the state have been known to wage war against Narendra Modi’s leadership through the last five years. The suspensions will have a far reaching impact on the future of the party as it prepares for the assembly polls later this year.

Modi became chief minister in October 2001, ousting Keshubhai Patel, a seasoned swayamsevak and organisation man. Patel was not a strong CM. He received a setback when the party lost the local government elections in 2000. Yet party stalwarts, including Keshubhai’s critics, did not welcome Modi as an alternative. Modi had no base in the party or a social or regional constituency to call his own. After becoming CM, he won his own election with a very thin margin from Rajkot in February 2002, although the constituency was considered safe for the party for over a decade.

The 2002 carnage changed this scenario. All BJP factions and the Sangh Parivar rallied together to fight the subsequent assembly polls under the Hindutva battle cry. It was an emotive issue that suited the Parivar’s political instincts. There was an imperative to recover from the defeat of the panchayat polls. The fear psychosis that was sought to be built and stoked during the campaign, alongwith the catchy question “apanu kon”, inflamed passions.

... contd.