NARENDRA MODI, the burly chief minister of Gujarat, is on a roll. On December 20th he won a third successive state election. Though the tally for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell slightly, from 117 seats in 2007 to 115, his victory was emphatic, a triumph more for Mr Modi than for his party. Nobody should doubt he now yearns to be prime minister. Visiting the BJP’s headquarters in Delhi, on December 28th, he was greeted by party workers chanting “PM, PM”.

Yet Mr Modi cannot look forward to assuming national office with any confidence. He remains a painfully controversial figure because of his behaviour in 2002, when communal violence left over 1,000 Gujaratis—mostly Muslims—dead. He was accused of, at best, turning a blind eye to the massacres, and has since happily portrayed himself as a Hindu nationalist.

Read Here – The Economist