While it was more than an open secret, the fact that senior Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader A B Vajpayee is out of electoral politics was evident on Thursday when the first list of BJP candidates was made public. As per convention, the party has always named Vajpayee as the first candidate but this time it named National Democratic Alliance (NAD) prime ministerial candidate L K Advani. It is learnt that BJP president Rajnath Singh went to Vajpayee a few days ago and requested him to agree to be the candidate for Lucknow which the old leader refused politely. Now many senior leaders including Rajnath Singh and Kalraj Mishra have been eyeing this safe seat of Lucknow.
Vajpayee is one of the tallest leaders in Indian politics and for years to come he will be remembered for a variety of reasons notably catapulting BJP into a national party, Nuclear Test in Pokhran, Lahore Summit and a host of reforms including a massive modernisation of national highways network -- I had the privilege of watching a film made on the project, along with him and few other distinguished guests at 7 Race Course Road in New Delhi.
I will remember Vajpayee for these and one more reason. He became an important pivot in bringing about a paradigm shift in Indian politics: he kickstarted the era of coalition politics, a system where the government is run by an umbrella of political parties rather than one or two. There were many other reasons such as emergence of regional political forces and erosion in support base of the Congress party that aided this trend, but it was Shri Vajpayee who turned this possibility into a reality and hosted an all-India coalition of mainstream and regional parties for a full term. For next many decades, as things stand today, Indian politics will fall into this trend and hopefully two-time Prime Minister Shri Vajpayee will be remembered for this as well.
NA
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