When HD Deve Gowda moved to New Delhi to take over as Prime Minister of the United Front government of 1996-97, the former Karnataka Chief Minister continued to offer “advice” to JH Patel, his successor in Bangalore.. The late Patel, it was reported, was very annoyed at the Prime Minister’s ‘interference’. In fact, Deve Gowda came to be described as the “PM of Karnataka” and “CM of India”!

Although not entirely similar, the story is frequently quoted by the Opposition in Gujarat which has been accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of running a “proxy” government in Gandhinagar.

For instance, Modi’s trusted bureaucrat K Kailashanathan (KK), who joined him in 2006 as his Principal Secretary, continues to remain the Gujarat CM’s Chief Principal Secretary, even after his retirement from the IAS in 2013.

The bureaucrat has also been one of the chief architects of the biennial Vibrant Gujarat Summits since 2002. The summits were a key factor in Modi’s transformation from ‘Hindutva icon’ to ‘Development man’. KK continued to run the show during Anandiben Patel’s tenure, and now in Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s dispensation.

How the PM continues to advise Gandhinagar from New Delhi came to light once again when a Gujarat delegation led by Rupani and his deputy Nitin Patel went to the national Capital on October 4 to invite Modi to inaugurate the Vibrant Gujarat Summit scheduled in January 2017.

While the official version was the State government had only gone to Delhi to ‘invite’ the PM, the details of the meeting told a different story. Apart from Rupani and his deputy, others in the delegation reportedly included Chief Secretary JN Singh and top officials. According to reports, the officials made a presentation before Modi, who made key interventions on the planning of the event. Also in attendance was the PM’s Principal Secretary Nripendra Mishra, and officials from the Department Of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) and the Ministry of External Affairs.

The PM’s micro-management of the mega event only underlines the importance the State holds in the BJP’s scheme of things, given that elections are imminent.

Ongoing agitations by the Patidars, the OBCs and Dalits — many of whom have backed the BJP over the years — do little for the BJP’s peace of mind as the polls approach in 2017. In fact, Modi, who had shifted his constituency to Varanasi in 2014, assured worried party workers in Gujarat on August 30 that he would, henceforth, be more “available” to them than ever before. He has followed it up by as many as three visits to Gujarat.

Rupani’s relative inexperience in governance is not helping matters. On September 29, a day after the Army’s surgical strike across the LoC, Deputy CM Nitin Patel called a press meet to announce the State’s security preparedness along the the Indo-Pakborder. An hour later, Rupani called a similar conference on the same issue.

The BJP government is thus leaving no stone unturned to make the Vibrant Gujarat Summit a success to buttress its own image in an election year. A dozen Nobel Laureates have been invited, and eight countries have confirmed participation. Seminars, workshops, exhibit-ions, roadshows have been scheduled soon after Diwali.

The hope is that the PM’s guidance and the success of his flagship mega event will give the BJP the boost it needs in the run-up to net year’s polls.

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