Within the BJP, even lowly party workers began to snigger about how the day Modi lost power the first man to be thrown out of the party would be its president. When I asked BJP leaders about this they would immediately defend him for being a ‘great booth manager’ and credit him with being around because of this ability to win election after election after election.

When the BJP started to lose elections in 2018 the BJP president should have lost some of his arrogance. The opposite happened. He began to tour the country at a furious pace and address political rally after political rally as if he were Prime Minister himself. His speeches became more belligerent and his attacks on ‘Rahul baba’ and his family more vicious. A line he used most often on these tours was, ‘Oh baba (little boy), you dare to ask Modi for an account of what he has achieved in 48 months when you have given this country no account of what your family has done in 48 years.’