From tea boy to India’s Prime Minister

As a young boy, Narendra Damodardas Modi helped his dad serve tea in Gujarat’s Vadnagar railway station. At the age of 63, and as leader of India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, he has become the prime minister of the world’s largest democracy.

Born on September 17, 1950, into a low-caste family running a small business, his interest in politics was sparked at an early age: At eight, Modi associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or the RSS, a powerful Hindu nationalist group which rejected secularism and wanted Hinduism enshrined in the Indian constitution. This policy, Hindutva, remains at the core of the BJP.

It was a logical step when Modi joined the BJP in 1985, as the party licked its wounds after winning just two seats in a disastrous showing in 1984 the Lok Sabha elections.

He rose steadily through the ranks, and was inducted into the national executive in 1991 after aiding Murli Manohar Joshi, a party senior, in his ekta yatra (unity journey) to bolster support.

Four years later, and now a stalwart, Modi worked hard behind the scenes to secure the party victory in Gujarat elections.

Despite his association with Joshi, it was LK Advani, the BJP’s most revered leader, who became his chief political mentor.

“It was Advani who mentored Modi when he virtually handpicked him into his team of state apparatchiks after recommendations from a few trusted peers in the late 1980s,” writes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay in Modi’s biography, Narendra Modi: The man, the Times.

Narendra Modi BJP’s prime ministerial candidate

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will be the Prime Ministerial candidate from Bharatiya Janata Party in the next general elections. This decision was taken in the meeting of the Parliamentary Board of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Giving information to the media about this decision, party president Rajnath Singh said in the press conference, “Bharatiya Janata Party has always been announcing its Prime Ministerial candidate. The meeting of the Parliamentary Board was called for this reason and the Board has decided that Narendra Modi should be made the Prime Ministerial candidate of BJP for the 2014 elections.”

After this announcement, Narendra Modi thanked all the party workers on the stage and said, “I have been serving in BJP for many years by performing different responsibilities and according to the power given by God. BJP has given a huge opportunity to a worker like me who comes from a small town.”

support of allies
Rajnath Singh also made it clear that the name of Narendra Modi has the support of all the allies of the National Democratic Alliance.

After this, there was a rush among Bharatiya Janata Party leaders to congratulate Modi. Leaders like Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj and Ravi Shankar Prasad welcomed Narendra Modi with flower garlands.

However, the party’s senior most leader Lal Krishna Advani did not attend the meeting of the Parliamentary Board of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

However, later one of his letters definitely appeared in the media in which he expressed his dissatisfaction with the functioning of party president Rajnath Singh.

However, journalist Sudhindra Kulkarni, considered close to Lal Krishna Advani, said, “No one is saying that Narendra Modi deserves this candidature, whereas he deserves it.”