Panaji (Goa), Jun 8: BJP is preparing to name Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as head of its campaign committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections - a likely precursor to declaring him a PM candidate — despite veteran leader L K Advani's vehement resistance.
There is a large consensus over Modi even as Advani's absence from BJP deliberations on Friday sparked a fresh controversy. An announcement on Modi leading the BJP campaign is likely to be made on Sunday.
RSS and the BJP leadership, according to party sources, have backed the move. In a brief remark during a meeting of BJP office-bearers on Friday, BJP chief Rajnath Singh said there will be clarity on several issues before the party.
Advani, it is learnt, is upset over being disregarded by the BJP leadership on crucial decisions in recent days, and naming Modi as the party's campaign in-charge is the last straw as it will clearly set the CM above other leaders. The high-voltage drama over his absence unfolded as Advani stayed away from a party executive for the first time since BJP's inception in 1980.
However, hectic efforts are on to get Advani to reach Goa. With RSS having endorsed Modi's role, the BJP chief is doing his best to ensure the announcement be made by Advani himself. Depending on whether Advani keeps well on Saturday, a chartered flight has been kept as an option to bring him over to Goa, it is learnt.
The "official" explanation that Advani is unwell failed to wash as party leaders confirmed that he remains strongly opposed to any decision that signals Modi's special status in the BJP.
Advani's reported sulk - there is uncertainty on his reaching Goa even on Saturday - took attention away from BJP leadership's effort to work out a compromise that stops short of announcing Modi as a PM candidate while setting him apart from other leaders.
A keen sense of anticipation has built up around Modi with an overwhelming majority of executive members awaiting an announcement indicating that the Gujarat strongman will lead BJP into the next Lok Sabha election.
This was evident when BJP office bearers met on Friday. Despite sitting in the last row - as is his wont — Modi was the centre of attention with members walking up and greeting him while he sat through the discussion impassively.
In an indication of growing expectations, an office-bearer asked Singh whether there will be clarity on the leadership issue. Singh is understood to have replied in the affirmative but did not provide any hint of when this will happen.
The fresh bout of factionalism with Advani virtually coming across as a dissident is worrying BJP leaders who feel the party is losing momentum at a time when it needs to come across as the clear alternative to a floundering Congress.
Advani's bitter opposition to Modi and his unstated suggestion that he is a contender for the PM's job is undoing the party's bid to keep the spotlight on the UPA's weaknesses and undercuts BJP's attempt to present itself as a cohesive alternative.
There is a large consensus in BJP that projecting Modi is a political necessity if the party hopes to emerge as the single largest after the next Lok Sabha election. This is matched by a conviction that Advani has had its shot at the PM's job in 2009, and cannot be a contender in 2014.
Advani's message was amplified by a few leaders like Uma Bharati and Shatrughan Sinha, seen to be aligned with him, also reporting sick and ducking the executive. Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha has also said the executive is not the appropriate forum to discuss Modi being named campaign committee head.
On Friday, most of the party's senior leaders arrived here for an extraordinary meeting of office-bearers before the national executive begins on Saturday morning, including Modi who is a member of the parliamentary board.
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