evidence: 57. Boy wonder Sachin Tendulkar makes his debut (1989) [...] It may seem surprising in 2022, but till June 2013, a year before the election that saw his ascent to the top elected post in the country, there was no certainty that Narendra Modi would be the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Prime Ministerial candidate. In June 2013, he was named chairman of the party’s election committee, and in September, its Prime Ministerial candidate – with both decisions being opposed by party veteran L K Advani. A combination of his stature as the tallest Hindu leader in the country, his incorruptible image and track record as the chief minister of Gujarat, and smart social engineering in important Hindi belt states such as Uttar Pradesh worked to Modi’s advantage – as did disaffection with the Congress-led UPA’s mismanagement of the economy and involvement in several corruption scandals. The result: the BJP became the first party to achieve a majority in the Lok Sabha on its own in three decades, and the party would go on to better these numbers in 2019.