In an interview with ‘Historically Speaking’, senior journalist Pankaj Vohra revealed an interesting anecdote to Dr. Aishwarya Pandit Sharma about how Narendra Modi was projected as a Prime Ministerial candidate in 2005.
He said once Pramod Mahajan was asked who will be the NDA’s PM figure for 2009 Lok Sabha polls and then he responded it should not be him but Lal Krishna Advani. He also suggested that he could be the PM face in 2014.
However, he said that the person who compete with him for the PM post in 2014 would be Narendra Modi.
With the unexpected turn of incidents, Mahajan was killed on May 3, 2006 and Modi became the PM in 2014.
“In 2005, or maybe in 2006, Sudhanshu Mittal will be able to tell you he is still around, Pramod Mahajan was asked – Will you be the Prime Ministerial candidate in 2009? He said ‘No’. In 2009 it will be Advani Ji (Shri L. K. Advani). He said every politician who comes at this level wants to be the prime minister and I will certainly be the candidate in 2014. This is what he said. In 2014, I will be vying for this position and the other person with whom I will have some sort of a conflict to get into that position will be Narendra Modi. As destiny would have it, he you know died, he (Pramod Mahajan) was shot dead by his brother and he was out of contention. So Mr. Modi was looked up as a Prime Minister, future Prime Ministerial candidate by the BJP, RSS long time ago.”