What Makes Narendra Modi a Middle-Class Hero? As India's middle class grows in number and political clout, it has found a new hero in Gujarat's chief minister, Narendra Modi, who has emerged with a bold, right-wing narrative in a country with a staunchly socialist past. Many Indians are still appalled over his alleged inaction or complicity in the 2002 Gujarat riots, which killed 1,000 people, most of them minority Muslims. But Mr. Modi's supporters and efficient public relations machine have positioned him as the panacea to India's slowing economic growth. The success of Mr. Modi's narrative among the urban middle class is not surprising if you look at global trends in developing nations like Turkey, Sri Lanka, Russia and China. In countries where materialism has been unleashed after decades of self-effacement, people have told their politicians that they don't really care about democracy, free speech or religious tolerance, as long as they help people get richer. As Ruchir Sharma, Morgan Stanley's head of emerging markets, writes in his book "Breakout Nations," many developing world regimes are "subconsciously internalizing the lesson of China: a leader who gets the economy right, can get away with almost anything in politics." Some say Mr. Modi is getting away with a pogrom, but he has grasped the global pattern well and positioned himself as a man who delivers, with the prosperous ends justifying his crude means. He has used a kind of religious nationalism known as Hindutva as the wedge issue, a rallying call for his hardline fan base. Further, he has won over the business community and the middle class with promises of smaller government, encouraging private and foreign capital and focusing on fast growth rates rather than government welfare spending. He has leveraged the disproportionate media attention to position himself for India's leadership after the 2014 general elections. Members of India's rising consumer class, who now blame big socialist governments of the past for thwarting their aspirations, have turned Mr. Modi into a star on Twitter, where many of his more than 1.5 million followers vocally drown out his critics. "Patriots are pleasantly surprised and traitors are running scared," writes one Narendra Modi fan on Twitter. Gujarati Lion's roars r heard wth rspct in India. Nvr let us down Sir, u r my bggst hope 4 turng India of my dreams in reality," writes another fan. Better than any other Indian politician, Mr. Modi seems to have figured out that India has moved on from being a middle-aged, poor country to a young, lower-middle-income country that now believes it can get rich quick. In the last decade, India's annual per capita income has almost trebled from $530 in 2003 to nearly $1,600 today. The average Indian is now 25 and lower middle class. The people in this group are young and poor enough that their income can grow at a fast rate, but also rich and confident enough to consume, make some small investments and aspire to break into the real middle class. They are already connected to middle class dreams through their television and mobile phone, and want more. If India follows the trends of other developing nations, this hyper-materialistic streak is set to continue until per capita income reaches global middle class levels, when hunger for growth is replaced by a desire for social security and complacence. Until then, Mr. Modi's narrative of growth at any cost is likely to be the dominant political theme in lower-middle-income India. The governing Congress Party, which has historically been the centrist party, is struggling to grasp this narrative to appeal to India's new middle-class voter. The center of India's economy, and that of its middle class, has moved appreciably since the Congress's 2004 successful election campaign focused on the "common man," or the median voter. That voter in 2014 will be much richer and more confident than in 2004, and is unlikely to be satisfied with minimum-wage guarantees and free doles. But it will still not be easy for Mr. Modi to translate the middle-class adulation into an outright win for his Bharatiya Janata Party. This was proved again this month in Karnataka State, where the party lost dismally in spite of Mr Modi's campaigning spree. Interestingly, the recent Gujarat winner could not swing Karnataka's urban middle-class seats for his party. India's national elections are now a sum of many state elections, where pan-India leadership projections garner great media attention but little electoral gain. Mr. Modi has been trying: he has been traveling around the country, speaking to fawning businesswomen and men about his "Gujarat model" of development, which he wants to replicate across India. And when it comes to Mr. Modi's overwhelming popularity with India's middle class, it's more than the economy. In fact, there are striking similarities between the rise of Mr. Modi and the rise of Bo Xilai, the now-disgraced former Communist Party secretary in Chongqing, China. Both were ambitious regional satraps who aspired for the country's top job. Both became darlings of the middle class and business community for their "can do" persona, but were labeled autocratic by critics. Most interestingly, both played the nationalist card in wounded ancient civilizations whose elite now believe they are the future of global power. A member of a radical faction of the Red Guard in his youth, Mr. Bo fashioned himself as a neo-Maoist, out to revive traditional Communist morality. The Chongqing government would send out Mao quotes through text messages, and vast sums of money were spent on organizing mass singings of Cultural Revolution-era songs. Mr. Modi joined the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in his teens, which shaped his early political philosophy. He has refused to apologize for the anti-Muslim riots that happened under his watch and for which some of his party members have been convicted. He is fond of quoting and celebrating the life of Swami Vivekananda, a 19th-century Hindu seer of aristocratic descent. "Narendra Modi's politics represents the intersection of caste, class and educational privilege of the Indian middle class," said Yogendra Yadav, a veteran political analyst who is now a member of the Aam Admi Party, or the Common Man Party. Indian nationalism was a dominant middle-class construct, which has found voice in Mr. Modi's brand of Hindutva. Friday: Why does India's rich call itself middle class? 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