Behind Narendra Modi's elevation, months of perseverance by RSS

New Delhi: Behind the Narendra Modi moment on Friday the 13, were months of focused and aggressive efforts by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS.

In the last few months, the BJP's ideological mentor has scripted the steady rise of the Gujarat Chief Minister in the BJP ranks with precision.

This has included an elaborate exercise by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to try and build consensus among Mr Modi's detractors in the party's top leadership and, when that has failed, ride rough shod over the opposition.

For LK Advani, the BJP's senior-most leader, that has meant extreme ignominy twice over this year. (Read)

In June, when he opposed Narendra Modi's elevation as the BJP's election campaign chief, Mr Bhagwat intervened to get Mr Advani to rescind the resignation letters that he had submitted. For his efforts, he was handed not assurances of the kind he wanted, but a stern reminder that there must be no more dissonance in the party over Mr Modi.

The RSS brass met Mr Advani repeatedly to try and chip away at his resistance to the man they wanted named as presumptive PM. Mr Bhagwat also met Sushma Swaraj and Murli Manohar Joshi, seen as other dissenters, but who gave in today and backed the majority decision to front Mr Modi.

The signs that the RSS was readying for a Modi announcement had come early in the year. When Nitin Gadkari's chance of getting an unprecedented second term as BJP president were thwarted, the RSS ensured that another Sangh man was chosen to head the party - Rajnath Singh, who has played a crucial role in ensuring that Mr Modi was named today as presumptive PM.

In February, it mandated at the Kumbh mela that the BJP and its affiliates would work towards re-establishing a soft Hindutva line for the elections in a bid to consolidate what it sees as a traditional vote base. Mr Modi fit right in; in July he declared in an interview, "I'm nationalist. I'm patriotic. Nothing is wrong. I'm a born Hindu. Nothing is wrong. So, I'm a Hindu nationalist so yes, you can say I'm a Hindu nationalist because I'm a born Hindu. I'm patriotic so nothing is wrong in it."

Congress leaders have criticised today's Modi announcement as an RSS decision, not that of the BJP. "The BJP has chosen someone who carries a lot of baggage - someone who has presided over the 2002 massacre. He has positioned himself as the champion of only one section of society," Congress Minister Shashi Tharoor told NDTV.