With Narendra Modi carrying the baggage that he does, and the party’s other chief ministers not really distinguishing themselves, in Vasundhara Raje the BJP perhaps has a candidate for good governance. Of course Ms Raje needs to remind herself that conversion bills are not vote winners. But, in general, she has demonstrated administrative aptitude. And now she has shown she can be politically quite smart, too. If only her party colleagues understood. Her decision to seek from Bengal Marxists the formula for beating anti-incumbency is wonderfully refreshing. For too long Indian politics has been a victim of primordial dislikes — that between the BJP and the Left being the most prominent exemplar. That their ‘ideologies’ differ is a given and is desirable — voters do need choices in the political marketplace — but there is no need for either of them to think the other has a communicable disease.

It is precisely this taboo that Raje’s initiative seeks to break. There is plenty to learn from Buddhadev Bhattacharya’s Bengal, not the least being the ways and means through which an ideology-conscious, cadre-driven party changes itself to suit the demands of modern governance. The CPI-M in Bengal has done in one respect what the BJP in India has failed to do: retain party discipline while adapting. Marxists’ electoral machine in Bengal runs alongside Bhattacharya’s modernisation vehicle. In Rajasthan, as in other BJP-ruled states, absurd conflicts between ideology and governance are frequent.

Predictably, however, Raje is receiving little help from her party colleagues who are either angry or defensive. Hopefully, the BJP’s national leadership will be a little less blinkered and realise that Raje’s was a move solely to benefit the party. In fact, if Rajnath Singh were to demonstrate a political cleverness he hasn’t so far, he would take Raje’s initiative as proof that while the BJP is ready to treat political rivals with respect, the CPI-M leadership can only talk in invectives. Plus, Singh should admit, won’t he love to know and apply what makes the CPI-M tick in Bengal?