145;Modi will be party146;s star campaigner in forthcoming elections146;

With the Election Commission announcing the dates for assembly polls in five states and the Lok Sabha elections inching closer, electioneering is gaining momentum across the country.

8216;As far as his moving to Delhi is concerned, it depends on what he wants8230;8217;

With the Election Commission announcing the dates for assembly polls in five states and the Lok Sabha elections inching closer, electioneering is gaining momentum across the country. BJP national president Rajnath Singh, who was in Ahmedabad to attend a party programme in connection with the biennial party expansion drive, talks to Newsline about his party8217;s strategy for the forthcoming elections.

Newsline: What is your party8217;s take on whether Narendra Modi will move to Delhi?
Rajnath Singh: Narendra Modi is the Chief Minister of a state. Naturally, a CM has a national role as well. He will have a very important role to play in the forthcoming elections. As far as his moving to Delhi is concerned, it also depends on what he wants.

NL: With dates for assembly elections in five states being declared, how is the party planning to take Modi8217;s help for campaigning?
RS: He will be one of our star campaigners and will travel extensively for campaigning.

NL: With so much thrust on development, how do you think the 8216;Gujarat Model8217; will work in other states?
RS: In terms of development, Gujarat has definitely created a successful model of its own and I give the credit for it to Narendrabhai. In other states, they have their unique characteristics and the developmental works are being done by negotiating local peculiarities. We8217;ll continue to do the same.

NL: You lauded Modi for bringing the Nano project to Gujarat. More than development, is the project becoming a symbol of political one-upmanship?
RS: It is the West Bengal Government who made a political issue of it. In Gujarat, this was brought in for the state8217;s development.

NL: While Modi has taken a very tough stand on terrorism, we saw the biggest serial blasts in the last one year happening in Gujarat. Also, there have been frequent cases of fake currency rackets surfacing here. Is this not a failure?
RS: You cannot call these failures. Look at the way it has been tackled here. Modi has done a great job. An event can take place anywhere. But what matters is how the administration handles it.

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NL: So much is being said about the Bajrang Dal and other similar groups, and some political parties have even demanded ban on them. But in Gujarat, we have seen them completely sidelined and almost silenced once the pitch of development picked up. Does this mean that these outfits become redundant as the focus shifts to development?
RS: They have not been engaged in anything destructive here. The issue is being politicised.

NL: Recently, we saw Om Prakash Chautala8217;s Indian National Lok Dal joining the NDA. Are there more parties coming NDA fold?
RS: NDA is in the expansion mode. We are also talking to some other parties and soon we8217;ll have some other parties joining the Alliance.

NL: Going by this, do we construe that even the BJP is not looking at the singular majority in Parliament anymore and has accepted the reality of coalition politics?
RS: Yes, sort of8230; But the BJP will in any case emerge as the single largest party in the next general election. May be we8217;ll cross the 98-seat mark as well.