The BJP went to its national executive meeting in Patna over the weekend with a weighty agenda: price rise,terrorism and Naxalism. If that was the intention,the party must explain how it all ended up spinning out of control into a confrontation with one of its oldest and,in the current context,most vital alliance partners. As tension simmers with the JD(U) in Bihar,the incident reframe two challenges before the BJP. The first concerns its ham-handed and,as the recent advertisements show,clumsy attempts to rebrand Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The second,at a crucial juncture before Bihar heads for assembly elections this year,points to confusion in the party on how to keep on board such few constituents as there now are in the National Democratic Alliance. That an effort is afoot to rebrand Modi in a softer,inclusive,and nationally viable avatar is obvious from the advertisements that sparked off this controversy. And that this effort is being carried out in stealth is seen from the sharp reaction it drew from Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Kumar is furious that photographs of Modi and himself in arms were issued in a Patna newspaper without his consent. He has also taken exception to mention in the advertisement about the Gujarat governments assistance for the Kosi floods of 2008. To make his outrage public,the Chief Minister cancelled a dinner he was to host for the BJP leaders in town for the national executive. In the hours since the controversy broke,efforts to calm matters were frantic. BJP spokespersons pleaded that too much must not be read into the advertisements,and that they did not know who issued them. JD(U) President Sharad Yadav held that the alliance is old and that an unpleasant incident had passed. That last claim may prove to overstated. Nitish Kumars anxiety is obvious. In an election in which the old faultlines of Bihars electoral politics are being remapped,and new axes of political mobilisation reconfigured,his fear is that the focus on Modi could alienate the Muslim vote,which came to him in significant numbers in the 2005 assembly election. In turn,the fact that this anxiety is so obvious should be notice to the BJP on managing both its alliance partners and Narendra Modi.
