Going by post-poll surveys and exit polls, it looks like the three chief ministers of Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh have delivered. While much is being speculated about the political futures of LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj and even Rajnath Singh in a Narendra Modi-led central government, our Delhi-obsessed media and political pundits seem to have completely forgotten about Vasundhara Raje, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh.
While Advani, Swaraj, Joshi and Singh can at the most deliver as many number of seats, the three chief ministers taken together might be bringing on the table around 55-60 MPs, leave aside three 'Congress-mukt' states and hundreds of MLAs.
Despite all the soundbytes emerging now about the resident bigwigs of the BJP's Delhi headquarters, the lady and gentlemen satraps from Jaipur, Bhopal and Raipur will collectively form the keystone to the Narendra Modi edifice in Delhi.
The first reason is the man himself. Modi is not a Delhi political operative (he was once, but only as a backroom party boy) who rose to become a prime ministerial candidate. He is a regional heavyweight who is on the path to conquer Delhi and change its power dynamics.
Hence his constant tom-tomming of the 'Gujarat model' and serial outbursts on how Delhi has become defunct and decrepit. So, coming back to the point, Modi will never underestimate the value and political heft of a Raje or a Chouhan or a Singh. After all, he himself belongs to their ilk.
Second, the three chief ministers can be Modi's countervail to the likes of Advani, Swaraj and Joshi, who, no matter what lofty positions they get, will never be snug-as-a-bug in a Modi administration.
Now the party might be fully behind him and his leadership is virtually unbreakable, but who knows about three or four years hence? A long-duration player like Modi would rather empower his MP/MLA-rich chief ministers than in-house heavyweights sitting atop mountains of ego and hidden grudges.
Third, Modi's plans for India might look big-picture but are essentially state-centric. With three very cooperating chief ministers in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and MP (strictly in that order), Modi has three excellent laboratories to play around with his brand of economic and developmental engineering. Even if they hurt a bit or plainly fail, the brunt will not be borne by him alone.
And finally, there's the Congress. In each of these states, the party has been decimated in the 2013 Assembly polls almost single-handedly by the respective chief minister.
In none of these states is there any other leader who could have done the job so well. The central party apparatus had tried to upstage Vasundhara Raje in 2009, but realized its mistake in a few years. Chouhan has proved to be a boon to the party after the disastrous tenure of Uma Bharti in MP. When Raman Singh returned to power in 2013 many in his own party were left red-faced. Would Sushma, Rajnath, Advani or even Arun Jaitley be able to this? Modi knows the answer.
When (and if) Narendra Modi is sworn in as India's 14th prime minister, we shall see these three 'super CMs' on the front row at Rashtrapati Bhavan. That's when their journey will begin too, bringing to a gradual end the reign of 11 Ashoka Road.
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