Samanth Subramanian
Foreign Correspondent
NEW DELHI // India’s main opposition party yesterday named the controversial Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for elections expected by May next year.
Mr Modi, 62, has been the Bharatiya Janata Party’s presumptive candidate for months, using his record as Gujurat state minister to project himself as an uncorrupt, efficient leader.
But his opponents say he is an authoritarian extremist who could fan sectarian tension in the religiously diverse nation. He has been accused of deliberate inaction and even complicity in communal riots that shook Gujarat under his watch in 2002, in which rampaging mobs killed between 1,000 and 2,000 people, most of them Muslim. He has always denied those allegations.
Mr Modi, who made an uncharacteristically low-key speech, promised party workers he would “not leave any stone unturned to ensure the BJP’s victory in 2014”.
His nomination is likely to set up a showdown with Rahul Gandhi, the heir to India’s Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, who is widely expected to lead the ruling Congress party in the election campaign.
Rajnath Singh, the BJP president, made the announcement after a meeting of the party’s parliamentary board.
A crowd of jubilant Modi supporters gathered outside the BJP’s headquarters in New Delhi ahead of the formal decision to name him the party’s candidate for prime minister, dancing, setting off firecrackers and handing out sweets.
Mr Modi, the son of a tea-shop owner, has been credited with chaperoning Gujarat’s strong economic growth and is adored by business.
Over the last year, he has played his cards with caution, not appearing too hungry for the BJP’s nomination.
Earlier this month, in an interaction with students in his home state, Mr Modi said: “I never see such dreams [of prime ministership] nor am I going to see such dreams. The people of Gujarat have given me a mandate to serve them until 2017, and I have to do this with my full strength.”
Even within the BJP, some leaders — notably those close to LK Advani, a veteran politician and the party’s prime ministerial candidate during the last election in 2009 — have expressed reservations about Mr Modi’s candidature.
“In a country like India, the prime minister has to be someone who can think about all sections and groups,” Sudheendra Kulkarni, a BJP leader, told a television channel yesterday. “Modi as a ruler has not shown remorse for what happened in Gujarat in 2002.”
“A person like Modi will divide society, and a person like him is not suitable to become the prime minister,” Mr Kulkarni added. “He has become a polarising figure in the party as well.”
In June, Mr Advani had threatened to resign from his party posts after Mr Modi was named the head of the election campaign committee. Mr Advani had, at the time, been placated with the assurance that no decision had as yet been made about the party’s candidate.
Mr Advani skipped the party meeting yesterday at which Mr Modi was confirmed as the BJP candidate. There was no word, however, on whether Mr Advani would stay on in the party.
Madhav Nalapat, a professor of geopolitics at Manipal University, told The National that the legacy of the 2002 riots would not hang over Mr Modi’s run.
“The reality is that this is unlikely to hurt Modi,” Mr Nalapat said. “The issues have shifted now, from communal relations to governance.”
ssubramanian@thenational.ae
With additional repoting by Reuters
