Dr Mohammad Manzoor Alam’s take on BJP’s next prime ministerial candidate.

The slow build-up to coming stae assembly elections and, beyond that, parliamentary elections, has begun with BJP’s chameleon-like fast change of colours.

Around middle of the current year they began a misleading propaganda campaign saying they would not decide on a prime ministerial candidate before parliamentary elections.

This was followed by a flurry of inspired speculations in the media. “Will it be Narendra Modi?”, asked some media pundit before examining all the options and, finally, coming to no conclusion.

Another one would speculate it would be Sushma Swaraj. Yet another would bet on the illustrious Mr Arun Jaitley, before admitting that they were not really sure.

In the first round, nobody mentioned the Babri Masjid-tainted Lal Krishna Advani. Then, slowly everyone started guessing whether Mr Advani, too, was in line for prime ministership. This was the second round.

At the end of this period various Sangh persons, including the BJP president Nitin Gadkari, started sending signals that there was no harm in giving Mr Advani, the failed prime ministerial candidate of last time, another chance at it.

Last time Mr Advani’s image consultants projected him as a man who was still going strong in mind and body despite his age. We had already seen his mind during the Babri Masjid campaign and all that they needed was to show his physical prowess.

To do that they showed him holding two small dumbbells. That, according to them, was proof enough of his ability to tolerate the stress of running the country, if only he was given a chance.

In the third round of orchestrated speculations Mr Advani himself came out in the open. His beaming face seemed to suggest that he had no objection if he was asked to give it another try.

Now it was the time for everyone to ask each other, “If that was the case why did not they tell us right away?” Well, they will never do that because that is not the BJP style.

And how would they cope with the unpleasant fact that Mr Advani will be older by another five years compared to his age at the last elections. Perhaps he will be given bigger dumbells to lift to convince voters about his health. However, this time the dumbells will be hollow.

It only shows that the lust for power never grows old, never dies.