In the summer of 2012, while interviewing Narendra Modi, the then chief minister of Gujarat, I had asked him about the dwindling allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

I queried that, not only had the number of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners shrunk since 2004, when the alliance failed in its bid for re-election, several of its alliance partners – most famously Nitish Kumar – were personally antagonistic towards him.

I had posed this question before the United Progressive Alliance went into a tail-spin and building alliances was seen as essential to acquiring power.

Modi, back then, was far from being accepted as the party's electoral mascot. So, what did he propose to overcome this handicap?