By Aryani Banerjee, The other day BJP and Congress were scuffling over dynasty politics. This is nothing more than the trailer. Now, the Rahul Gandhi versus Narendra Modi battle is the big screen fight India is looking forward to… the Prime Ministerial elections. The Congress Chintan Shivir in Jaipur turned the entire nation pinker with the name of its most adored Vice President. Congress belief has engraved its trust in his name and Rahul Gandhi is the name for 2014 elections. No, it’s not exactly the young vs. old fight, rather, it is the fight of two ethics that took turns in reigning India’s throne. Looking back to the Gujarat elections, a west wind blew very strong in the Kutch, and towards the evening it gusted away to kiss the horizon, leaving back an orange lotus flag flying triumphantly high on the shore. The name of that wind was Modi… Narendra Modi. He strolled like a monarch on the corridor of his party office amidst loud cheer and flower shower! He had scored an absolute majority for the BJP, henceforth hitting a hat-trick victory for the name Gujarat loved, and the mirror admired everyday! The wind twisted around the fate of the opposition Congress and bulldozed it till it crumbled. A decisive win in Gujarat for a third time in a row with the party securing a massive win, clinching 117 seats for the 182-member assembly, BJP has not been able to outdo its tally in 2007. Arch rival Congress, out of power in the state for the last 22 years, won 61 seats while others bagged four, including one by Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) of former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel. It was a bolt from the blue for Congress when its state unit Chief Arjun Modhwadia lost the Porbandar seat to Babu Bokhiria of BJP by 17,146 votes, while Leader of Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil was defeated by Minister of State for fisheries Purushottam Solanki of the saffron party by 18,554 votes in Bhavnagar rural constituency. Coming back to the second battle, Modi has strong grassroots party support, and is certainly first among equals in the party, but unlike the Congress, the BJP is not a single-power-centre party. Every BJP Chief Minister is a power centre, and the party is India’s most federated organisation. Plus, there is parental interference from the RSS. Modi will have more challenges before the anointment than Rahul. In the Chintan Shivir, Sonia Gandhi had urged the young politicians to be more austere. She knows it’s the youth of a country who can be urged to change the nation for the better. So, does Modi lose luck cards here? It’s not about Rahul being called the country’s most eligible bachelor at 42 and Modi the controversial bachelor still at 62! The thing is, Rahul Gandhi despite being 42 has a feudal mindset and Modi being 62, has a record of encouraging the youth of his state about what change they want. So, in the Mahabharata of 2014, it will be a battle of mindsets, of ethics, of two political leaders who will bull-fight it out at the arena… The question remains… as to… who’s the bull and who’s the matador? Source: Itvnews-India
