GANDHINAGAR: Not many chief ministers of a large state have stayed in office for 10 years on the trot. Fewer still have stayed relentlessly in the news the way Narendra Modi has since he took over as Gujarat CM on this day, exactly a decade ago.

A day before Modi's 10th year in power, his government offered doles to state employees which will cost the exchequer Rs 2,250 crore. The government on Friday announced cash for this year's arrears of the sixth pay commission to nearly 4.53 lakh government employees and 3.47 lakh pensioners. A Diwali bonanza, the move is also seen as a sign of early assembly polls, scheduled in December 2012.

BJP leaders say the party has swung into action, with various programmes being planned across the state even during the monsoon, which is considered unusual.

This year's pay will be the third installment of the arrears. In all, five installments are to be paid to employees against the higher pay scales with retrospective effect from 2006.

Over the years, Modi has turned every crisis into an opportunity, consolidated his position within and outside the party, damaged the Congress, turned around ailing public sector units, developed infrastructure and shaped policies that sped up industrial and agriculture growth. But, while he did all this and more, the ghost of the taint of the 2002 riots could never get erased.

Controversial bills, fiery speeches, fake encounters, opposition from Sangh Parivar, big-budget mega shows, high-handed handling of dissent - he always gave critics a slight scent that they had a chance to knock him over even as he kept up the good show.

The one major reason why controversies failed to dent his popularity was the perception of his heading an honest government - his mother still stays in a government quarter meant for class III employees in Gandhinagar. Consistent monsoons stood by Modi all through. A drought prone state, nature was kind on Gujarat ever since Modi took charge in 2001.

It is not often that leading industrialists hail a person as the next prime minister. Modi won over many admirers from the corporate world too with his pro-business outlook. The Vibrant Gujarat summits have helped him market the state as an ideal investment destination.

What next? This is being discussed in the rank and file of BJP. Having bared his national ambitions during the Sadbhavana fast, Missile Modi looks certainly headed towards Delhi.