The victory may have come largely courtesy a last-minute switch of allegiance by the TDP, but it is a victory nevertheless - jo jeeta wohi sikander ... In the event, the new dispensation has much to thank Chandrababu Naidu for ... The BJP can now legitimately claim to have knocked down the ideological mental block that had kept it on the fringes of power. For Naidu this is equally a turning point in a career speckled with milestones ... For better or for worse, he has to stay with his new friends ...

Throughout the confidence motion, the BJP's opponents threw dark hints about a hidden (RSS-linked) agenda, which the Prime Minister was at pains to refute.

However, the only surefire way to dispel fears on this count is through action which demonstrably shows the BJP leadership to be independent of mind - held to ransom neither by the RSS nor by one or the other of its allies ...