Mera Gaon, Mera Desh

Public memory is short but LK Advani was the effective prime ministerial face of the party in the run-up to the elections of 1991. Fresh from his 'rath yatra' and his detention by Lalu Prasad Yadav's government, he traveled to Ayodhya where he made an emotional speech about how Muslims would be safe only under a Hindu raj.
Actually, Advani as a leader has undergone not one but many transformations in his public life. His journey is well catalogued with markers and memories in his recent autobiography, My Country, My Life. If it has echoes of the famous Dharmendra-Vinod Khanna film Mera Gaon, Mera Desh, it perhaps is an echo of his own early days as a film critic for The Organiser.
It was not one but two situations that thrust him into national limelight. As the man who rebuilt the party after its debacle in 1984, he was identified centrally with an unrepentant and assertive Hindutva. 'Minorityism' and 'pseudo-secularism' were his distinctive contributions to the idiom of Indian politics. But these proved to be an albatross after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992, an event he has spent a lot of his time distancing himself from ever since.
Here, the second strand in his politics becomes evident. It was Advani, more than anyone else, who put the nuts and bolts of a gaggle of regional forces together to cobble up a NDA. This scaffolding was essential to the success of its icon, Atal Behari Vajpayee, in steering a coalition government through choppy waters for all of one five-year term. If such a feat was accomplished, some credit ought to be that of the second-in-command.
But now, with general elections on the anvil, the BJP's most well known face, faces a more arduous test. He has to make the transition from being the leader of his party and its now depleted alliance to project the image of a leader of the country at large. Here, his first image is at odds with his second, and may yet trip him.
More critical than that is the precipitous decline of Hindutva forces, and not just the party, in the valley of the Ganga. It is now a pale shadow of its former self in both UP and Bihar. These two states contribute 120 out of 543 seats to the Lok Sabha. It is no coincidence that it is here that it struck gold in 1991 on its own in UP and in alliance with Nitish Kumar in the Lok Sabha Polls in 1998 in Bihar. But the party itself is in a state of stupor in both the vast provinces.
Further, it lacks credible alliance partners in two crucial states in the south. Since 1991, with the exception of Tamil Nadu, no party has formed a government there that lasted beyond one term. Jayalalithaa is yet to make up her mind and can be expected to bargain hard both before and after the polls.
As for Andhra Pradesh, it is unclear if Chandrababu Naidu will discard his 'touch me not' attitude to the party of which he was once a valued ally. The former chief minister's own ambitions for the top spot in the country are at variance with the claims of the BJP.
Much of Advani's ambitions now rest on whether or not he can win over enough allies in the run-up to the polls. It is the regional satraps who will hold the key to power and office in what may well be the last decisive election of his decades-long political career.