Rahul Gandhi has in the past tried unsuccessfully to pitch himself against Modi, by constantly attacking the prime minister as Adani’s and Ambani’s man, a chor chowkidar and a number of other things. But in the campaign for the 2024 elections, particularly with the first two phases of voting behind us, Modi has given his campaign a new spin. it is Modi who is juxtaposing Rahul against himself. That’s a billion-rupee bonanza for the Congress party, which would otherwise have spent a fortune to project Rahul as the opposition’s PM candidate, apart from running into serious resistance from other race runners.

In recent days Shehzada, his scornful moniker for Rahul Gandhi, has gained further currency and become the staple diet of Modi’s election speeches. So much so that he is saying that the Pakistanis and all those who loathe to see India progress wish to see Rahul sit on the prime ministerial chair, in a way acknowledging he is the one to lead the opposition government if it ever happens to be a reality. Modi has apparently eliminated Mamata, Kejriwal, Akhilesh and all others from the race.

Modi has thus helped the INDIA bloc overcome a most vexed problem. At one stage, the opposition unity was floundering on the prime ministerial ambitions of the regional satraps. Mamata refused to play ball, because she felt Congress had only one name for the coveted post. Arvind Kejriwal too considered himself no pushover as his party increasingly realised its pan-India potential. Nitish Kumar, who had dreamt of putting himself in Modi’ shoes, has since fallen by the wayside, and has been tamed, domesticated and declared a dead horse, while Kejriwal is more obsessed with his time in Tihar jail rather than dreaming about a transfer to the PM house.

It was confusion about the prime ministerial candidate that prompted the opposition to face the election without a PM candidate, insisting that the first task was to see the back of Modi. In their desperate bid to keep Rahul Gandhi out of the picture, Mamata and Kejriwal even proposed Mallikarjun Kharge as the prime ministerial face and the Congress president, though modest in his response, saw some vivid dreams.

NCP veteran Sharad Pawar went to the extent of saying there was no need to have an agreed PM candidate to go into the election. He was right; in the 1977 elections Morarji Desai came from nowhere to become the prime minister. Similarly, the mantle of prime ministership fell on Narasimha Rao from out of the blue, when he had nearly packed up from Delhi to his Hyderabad home. Both Morarji and Rao had epoch-making tenures, but neither had any inkling of the trophy that was waiting for them until they were sworn in.

The confusion in the opposition camp was music to the ears of BJP, whose leaders lost no opportunity to taunt and torment the INDIA bloc. “Narendra Modi would become prime minister if the BJP and its allies win the Lok Sabha polls but nobody knows who the INDIA bloc's PM candidate is,” BJP chief J P Nadda thundered last week at an election rally.

Home minister Amit Shah even predicted a prime ministerial musical chair in the event of the opposition securing a working majority. “Do they have any leader? Can you make Lalu Prasad the prime minister; can MK Stalin run the country, can Mamata Banerjee do it; can we even think of Rahul Gandhi’s name? God forbid if the INDI alliance comes to power, they will share the prime minister’s post for one year each,” Shah said addressing a rally in Bihar. He had a vision of Pawar becoming PM for one year, Lalu Prasad for another year, Mamata for one year, Stalin for another year and ‘if something is left then Rahul baba’.

But Modi has solved the puzzle for his party colleagues by zeroing in on Rahul and putting all that is objectionable with the opposition at the doors of the Gandhi scion, the controversial ‘inheritance tax’ included. This is more than an oblique suggestion that opposition means the Gandhis and vice versa. Rahul and his Congress party couldn’t have asked for more. "The BJP is working on increasing the assets of the people, but Congress's Shehzada and his sister are both announcing that if they come to power, they will do an 'X-ray' of the country," Modi said.

Rahul has never had it so good and must be really enjoying his new-found acceptance. He must be laughing up his sleeves, saying a silent prayer for Modi for his most unexpected benediction. (IPA Service)