Ambalal Koshti, a 66-year-old Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker at the State headquarters in Ahmedabad, was a proud man on Friday. He was the one who spotted Modi, then 18, at a tea stall and discovered the spark in the bearded youth.
Koshti introduced him to RSS veteran Laxmanrao Inamdar, in 1968.
Nearly two decades later, in 1986, Modi was drafted into the BJP by the RSS.
“This is a moment of immense joy. We have brought so many people into the fold of Jan Sangh, and then the BJP but one of them becoming a Prime Minister of the country gives a feeling of achievement and contentment,” says Koshti.
Modi, too, remembered the man who initially hand-held him and put him on the highway to 7, Race Course Road in New Delhi. “I can’t forget the day when, after becoming Chief Minister, Narendrabhai referred to me as his boss during a courtesy meeting with the party workers,” recalls Koshti.
While Gujarat’s leaders and workers recognise Koshti’s decades-old service to the party, insiders call this his biggest contribution. The low-profile Koshti resides in a locality in the walled city of Ahmedabad and still goes to the party office on a bicycle.
Recalling his first interaction with Modi, he says: “Narendrabhai expressed eagerness to attend the RSS shakha, so I took him to one in Maninagar. Since there was no place to stay, he started living in the RSS office and used to work just like any other swayamsevak.”
Koshti was the General Secretary of the Kankaria ward, which he handed over to Modi to keep him glued to the organisation. “His nationalistic thinking never let him get swayed away by any other force,” he notes.
Koshti adds: “We brought those people to the Jan Sangh fold who had nationalistic thinking as we believed it was getting difficult to protect self-respect.”
Golwalkar’s disciple
He credits the spiritual learning that Modi achieved at the hands of RSS leader Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar for the unwavering focus with which Modi achieved his goals.
“Narendrabhai insists on timely and orderly completion of tasks. His image of an angry politician is just a wrong perception. He maintains calm even in crisis and tries to get solutions,” says an associate of Modi.
Several firsts for Modi
Having set a record by securing the maximum seats for the BJP ever, Modi has also emerged as the first OBC leader to be made the Prime Minister of India.
Also, he is the first and only Chief Minister of a state to be nominated as the prime ministerial candidate by any political party.
Modi who won from both Varanasi and Vadodara, has broken the record for the highest victory margin. In Vadodara, he trounced AICC General Secretary Madhusudan Mistry by 570,128 votes.