Date:24/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/12/24/stories/2007122451720100.htm

Back It’s business as usual for Modi

Virendra Pandit

Ahmedabad, Dec. 23 Except to those nursing a pathological dislike of the BJP and Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the return of the ruling party to power on a fourth-time pro-incumbency wave in Gujarat was almost a bygone conclusion by the time the last vote was cast on December 16.

Today, the Modi team won 117 out of 182 Assembly seats, while its nearest opposition party, the Congress (I), had to be content with only 59 seats, the remaining six going to others.

But this BJP victory is not what the pro-Modi insiders were predicting either: a repeat of the Madhosinh Solanki regime’s 145-plus seats in the 1980s. In fact, the BJP has lost ten seats compared to the 127 it won in 2002; the Congress has gained eight seats vis-a-vis that poll. The NCP also won three seats and the JD (U) one.

Moreover, seven of BJP’s Ministers have lost the elections, including some Modi confidantes like Mr I.K. Jadeja. But, in any case, no minister ever mattered in Gujarat after Mr Modi came to power in October 2001 — they were mostly faceless non-entities. His ‘Jeetega Gujarat’ theme and the Modi-masks won the day for the BJP.

The significance of the BJP victory lies in the fact that, except the Modi team, all others were seen as beating about the bushes, given the rainbow coalition of opposition against the Chief Minister. Mr Modi won his Maninagar seat with an impressive 87,000-plus margin, defeating his Congress rival and the Union Minister of State, Mr Dinsha Patel.

Industry response

Predictably, the industry and business community of Gujarat, whom Mr Modi has taken along on his numerous business promotion journeys abroad, is happy with the uninterrupted BJP regime.

As Mrs Paruben Jaikrishna, the first woman President of Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Business Line on Sunday, Mr Modi has emerged as the ‘Michael Schumacher of Gujarat’.

“He took each stone and made our house stronger. He is innovative, Chanakya-like, who can take all challenges thrown at him and come out with flying colours.”