But, it was the realisation of his own limitations as a leader — the obvious lack of mass appeal — that made him sense it as a weakness in Sushma’s political stock too. He came up with a swift response to it — something that decisively tilted the scale in his favour as the undeclared number two in any future BJP government. He realised the possibilities of converting the groundswell of support for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, the popular BJP leader from a state that had been Jaitley’s route to Rajya Sabha, into a decisive electoral mandate in 2014 elections. Jaitley, with his fabled access to Delhi power circles, turned himself into Modi’s point person in the national capital. Besides negating the challenge of Advani-led bid for another shot at prime ministership, Jaitley took care that organisational support for Modi was expressed unequivocally at the Goa session of the party in 2013. The view that he had cultivated close ties with a section of Delhi media also meant charges of perception-management in favour of his party and government — an allegation which isn’t unique to the backroom operators of any major political party.