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Chidambaram had a dust-up with Lalit Modi in 2009 when, as home minister in UPA, he refused to give the IPL security as the Lok Sabha elections were due. He asked Lalit to shift IPL dates, but Lalit simply moved the tournament to South Africa and carried on. Lalit clearly rubbed too many people the wrong way by his cockiness. In yesterday’s interview to a TV channel, Lalit blamed Chidambaram for setting the dogs after him.

The point for the Prime Minister to note is that BCCI’s money power is drawing politicians to it like bees to honey. And its internal power struggles are also, indirectly, impacting national politics now. He has to defang the BCCI by getting the politician out of it. Not an easy task, but cutting the BCCI down to size in some way, maybe by helping create a rival league at the national level, would help.

The PM should now be in no doubt that his pre-eminence in national politics is his greatest vulnerability – and strength. It is helping former foes (Nitish and Lalu being prime examples) to bond and gang up against him, and ruining his development agenda. But he probably knows this anyway. An interesting thing has happened during the current Sushma Swaraj crisis. While the Congress is going hell for leather targeting the government, most regional parties are staying clear. This means Modi’s enemies can be isolated by judicious use of his office’s powers and covert promises or threats against them. In the remaining four years of his tenure, this power is going to be critical to get his legislative agenda through, and also to govern effectively at the centre.

In India’s crab minded political environment, dividing the opposition, through fair means or foul, seems to be the only way to rule. The Gandhi family used this to great effect. Modi will have to do the same.