One can begin with speculation, as many fear the end of democracy, whether NaMo will seek and opt for a third term. Many secularists suspect him to be ending the democratic system to be an autocrat. Their suspicions is due display of temperament as the Gujarat chief minister of disregarding all viewpoints not in consonance with his. Even in formation of his union cabinet, he had deprived all other colleagues of political stature.

Yet one can read in his public behaviour in his actions and words his ambition to be recognized as the supreme leader of Indian masses. That does not leave scope to suspect him to be with ambitions of becoming another failed autocrat. But no one can easily rule out a strong possibility of his opting out of the race for power but ensuring his choice of successor in the throne.

To keep out, perhaps, old and unwanted old leaders from his cabinet he established a precedent that old politicians above 75 years should not be asked to shoulder burdens of state but be allowed to enjoy their time in privacy. He also would have crossed 75 years of age when the next election is due. The change in outward appearance to look like an old baba rather than as well groomed individual also suggests his mental preparations for retirement.

Though his success in 2014 was due to change of the basic concept of primacy to the material economic well being rather than to their religious supremacy, the mentors of the party may not agree to change and seek to impose a individual dedicated to the concept of religion as the supremacy. Exposure of the real intent hidden in the concept of theological state will need another full article. But suffice will be belief that the Sangh chief would attempt to impose his choice through next elections. As usual, he may not succeed in achieving his objective but it will not desist him from attempting.

Three names were under fierce speculations as successor after the Sangh chief had publicly denounced NaMo. The home minister Amit Shah, former BJP resident and cabinet minister in the NaMo ensemble, Nitin Gadkari and the young chief minister of Uttar Pradesh since 2017 Aditya Nath Yogi in first year of the NaMo second term, Shah appeared to be controller of power levers white NaMo was engaged in building his international reputation. Suddenly Shah was brought down to earth from his heights with public repudiation by NaMo. The Muslims became uneasy to see attempts to reduce their status through fresh registers o Indian citizens. NaMo rushed to the Ramlila ground rally to publicly deny of any move for afresh registration of Indian citizens. The public repudiation revealed wide differences between two though general perception till then was they were two faces of same coin. Nitin Gadkari name came up only because of general perception of his close association with the Sangh chief was due to prevailing belief of upper hand to Gadkari as he hailed from same village where Bhagwat was born.

Yogi had no contribution to unprecedented BJP victory in the 2017 assembly polls,. Yet he was installed as the chief minister instead of Manoj Sinha, preference of the Prime Minister. Every BJP chief minister was preferred nominee of the Sangh and not choice of NaMo. In seven years NaMo did not share his political platform with any BJP chief minister nor allowed anyone of them to ride along with him in his vehicle in road shows. No other gesture could have displayed his dislike for the Sangh nominees. His preference was to follow the path chartered by Mahatma Gandhi though he was a trainee in the Sangh philosophy. He left no scope to doubt even before the election campaign was launched by stating his priority for toilets before temple.

The Sangh was established in 1925 seven years after Gandhi began arousing conscious of lower strata of Indian society for their political rights. It was seen as inviting a fatal blow to the Varna based social stratification to give superior position to first Varna. Mahatma was hated for half a century. The Sangh relented only in 1977 to allow the Jan Sangh faction to visit the Raj ghat, pay homage to Gandhi and be sworn to the Indian constitution in the name of Mahatma Gandhi. Even then the Sangh Parivar refused to recognize Gandhi as the Father of the Indian nation. Its chief minister now was celebrating the Gandhian path.

In eight months after the grand victory and formation of the cabinet. Attempts began to force NaMo to the old party agenda. He refused to relent though stopped the pursuit of his promise of rapid economic growth. He may not have anticipated the reversal of the economic movement due to his harsh economic measure he could not have missed to know the consequence of his lock down on all economic activities in March 2020. The popular sentiments turned against the party to confirm the party had no scope to win the election without him. He proved his hold over the electorate in the UP assembly polls in 2017 with delivery of unprecedented victory and then the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when the Sangh Parivar did not expect him to win more than 142 seats.

The political situation that obtains now, would not allow any preferred nominee without NaMo in command. He would not stand behind the Sangh nominee. In this context his gesture in the Bihar assembly polls in December 2020 has to be viewed. He took the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar not only on his political platform but also introduced him as his friend.

Nitish Kumar had decreed as not-reversible condition to take the BJP in his coalition in the 2010 assembly polls that the Gujarat chief minister NaMo would not even step in Bihar to campaign for the BJP. Nitish Kumar ended his coalition with the BJP immediately after the grand victory on NaMo in 2014. But he came back to the coalition with the BJP in 2018 without any explainable provocation, after winning the state poll in 2015 in the coalition with Laloo Yadav and the Congress. Despite such humiliating experiences, NaMo could not have shared his political platform unless he had his future political moves in mind. This may appear to be a wild speculation. The background I listed provides enough material to convert it into prediction.