This refers to the editorial, “Best among probables” (July 19). Although it was all over the media that M Venkaiah Naidu's name was in the reckoning, most of us thought that the Modi-Shah duo would be hard to put a match for the Opposition’s choice of candidate, Gopalkrishna Gandhi. Nevertheless, Naidu is the best bet for the BJP. He belongs to the Khamma caste of Andhra Pradesh, and may help the party to make inroads in the southern region.
Over the last three years, as Minister, Naidu had been Prime Minister Narendra Modi's voice. Known for his extemporary one-liners, which can make light of even the grimmest of situations, and his timely aggressive posturing, Naidu has strongly defended the Modi Government, both inside Parliament and on public forums. He was the one who described Modi as ‘god's gift to India’, ‘messiah of the poor’, and coined the following terms for his name — ‘modifier of developing India’ and ‘making of developed India’. Given the NDA's comfortable majority in the electoral college — the two Houses of Parliament combined — Naidu is poised to be elected Vice President. If that happens, it will create another vacancy in the Union Cabinet after Manohar Parrikar's exit to take charge as the Goa Chief Minister burdened Union Finance Minister Arun Jatiley with additional charges. Could a possible reshuffle be on the cardsIJ