In the mid-1990s when it began to become apparent that the Congress would go out of power both in Maharashtra and the Centre, there were two practical leaders of both the Shiv Sena and the BJP, who readily admitted that their parties were hopelessly inadequate at finding the right talent for the right job.

Pramod Navalkar of the Shiva Sena was more upright and honest. “We do not have anyone to match the calibre of Sharad Pawar for the job of chief minister. Nor do we have anyone as erudite as VN Gadgil (who was then the spokesperson of the ruling Congress Party). How will we find and train anybody to suit the job?”

Pramod Mahajan of the BJP had no doubts about the adequacy of Atal Behari Vajpayee as prime minister but he, too was agonising about how his party would find a suitable finance minister. The BJP, then as now, believed in making up for the talent deficit by stealing from other parties, so their plans were afoot long before Vajpayee was sworn in for his first term of 13 days in government.

They were eyeing Dr Manmohan Singh, the finance minister in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government and thought he would be an easy catch. “He is just a bureaucrat, not a career politician or even a blue-blooded Congressman. He agreed to bail out the Rao government in a period of crisis and it will not be difficult to persuade him to help out the BJP.”