Modi puts past aside to become PM in waiting Uneasy allies: Gujarat state Chief Minister Narendra Modi, left, speaks with his party's senior leader, Lal Krishna Advani. Delhi: A decade ago what little publicity Narendra Modi achieved outside his home state was negative and his political career, barely begun, was on the verge of oblivion. Now he stands, by some reckonings, the man most likely to be the next prime minister of India. As Chief Minister of the western state of Gujarat, he has overseen years of double-digit economic growth. His state has been the embodiment of the "India Shining" tale, which his party, the Hindu nationalist BJP, told Indians for many years. But as Gujarat under Mr Modi has surged, India - led by the rival Congress Party - has stumbled. "As I have done for my state, so I can do for the country," is the unspoken leitmotif of Mr Modi's run for the prime ministership. But the 62-year-old is still dogged by the controversy of his early career. And where once he was little known outside of Gujarat, now everybody in India knows Mr Modi. And everybody has an opinion. "Brother Modi's time has come, he is the future of India," says Ramakant, a Hindu, in a Delhi street. It doesn't matter what he did in the past; what matters is his ability to perform. Along the same road, Muslim labourer Saifuddin says he despises Mr Modi. He spread hatred and is responsible for killing thousands of people. Not only me, my family, friends and community all dislike him. In February 2002, Narendra Modi had been chief minister of Gujarat for only four months (he was appointed, not elected, after his predecessor faced corruption charges), when violence broke out between the state's Hindus and Muslims. After a train carrying Hindu pilgrims through the town of Godhra was set on fire - by Muslims, it was alleged at the time, though a subsequent inquiry found it was an accident - anti-Muslim riots raged across the state for months. More than 1200 people were killed and allegations emerged that Mr Modi's government not only failed to stop the attacks but fomented them. Mr Modi has always denied complicity in the anti-Muslim pogrom that seized his state. But the perception that he is anti-Muslim persists. His intense unpopularity among India's minorities is the reason many within the BJP do not believe he should be their choice for the prime minister's office. The public, it seems, feel otherwise. A CNN-Indian Broadcasting Network poll last month found 38 per cent of Indians preferred him for the top job, far ahead of Congress's Rahul Gandhi, who polled just 14 per cent. Mr Modi recognises his base is the Hindu-majority rising middle and aspiring-to-middle classes. He speaks to them about the things they care about: to parents about getting their children into school, to farmers about getting their produce to market, to businessmen about wiping out corruption. He tweets to his 1.7 million followers - young, tech-savvy and middle-class - several times a day. Barriers remain. Mr Modi does not appeal to rural voters, still half of India's population: his unceasing growth message means little to villagers still waiting to have the lights turned on, a well or a road built. And to form government, the BJP will need coalition partners. These will be harder to find with Mr Modi as leader. But in India there is now a feeling of inevitability about his candidature. Last week he was appointed head of the BJP's election campaign committee, the perfect platform from which to put his own name forward. It sparked the temporary resignation from the BJP of the party's founder, and Mr Modi's one-time mentor, Lal Krishna Advani. The irony for Mr Advani is that Mr Modi is the man he made. A decade ago, in the aftermath of the Godhra riots, the BJP wanted Mr Modi sacked as chief minister of Gujarat. It was Mr Advani who stood by him and gave him the chance to become the figure who now faces the nation.