At Vasundhara Raje's swearing-in, the great Modi-Gehlot photo-op

Jaipur: At Vasundhara Raje's oath-taking ceremony on Friday, Narendra Modi stole the show with his warm hug for the Congress's Ashok Gehlot, recently vanquished by the BJP in the Rajasthan elections.

Ms Raje celebrated her mammoth win by being sworn in at a grand function in front of Jaipur's Vidhan Sabha, with the top brass of the BJP and about 30,000 party workers in attendance.

Mr Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate for 2014, reached out and hugged a clearly reluctant Mr Gehlot as the former chief minister walked on to the stage.

Mr Gehlot had during his election campaign, repeatedly chosen to attack Mr Modi in his speeches more than Ms Raje, who was projected by the BJP as its chief ministerial candidate.

In his extensive election tour of Rajasthan, Mr Modi did not spare Mr Gehlot either. He had scoffed at the Congressman's attempts to compare his performance as Rajasthan's chief minister with that of Mr Modi's as the chief minister of neighbouring Gujarat. Mr Modi had suggested in one speech that while Mr Gehlot had been unable to bring water to parched Rajasthan, he could drive a car through water pipes in Mr Modi's Gujarat.

Mr Gehlot ended up with a mere 21 seats; Ms Raje walked away with 162, with a 12 per cent swing in the BJP's favour. She attributed much of her success to Mr Modi's popularity.

The BJP's celebration of that victory today was a message from Jaipur that it expects its performance in four assembly elections last weekend to reflect in the 2014 general elections.

Prominent guests at Ms Raje's oath-taking ceremony included allies like the Badals of the Akali Dal and Uddhav Thackeray down from Mumbai.