JUNE 5- A serious move is afoot to try and force a decision on projecting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls at the BJP’s forthcoming national executive in Goa, party sources said on Tuesday.
Sources in the pro-Modi camp claimed that the “Operation project Modi” would take centre stage at the extended core group meeting in Goa on June 7. They said Modi wants a position that is unique to him and not one where he is part of a larger group like the party’s parliamentary board.
BJP president Rajnath Singh, sources said, has been seeking senior party leaders’ opinion on Modi to get a sense of how the top brass views his credentials. He is in favour of quickly settling the Modi issue either one way or the other.
One of the options Rajnath has been considering is to elevate Modi as campaign committee chief for 2014 because projecting him as the PM candidate was out of question right now as pro-L.K. Advani camp is strongly aligned against him.
Sources said Advani has made it clear that he rates acceptability over popularity as a necessary credential for being the NDA’s PM candidate.
More rounds of consultations were likely to happen over the next 48 hours.
Sources reasoned Modi’s hurry to create a unique position for himself saying he believes that forcing an early decision would help him win the battle for Hindi heartland by the end of this year.
However, Modi’s biggest fear is that a third win for Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan could help him emerge as a strong alternative to him.
The Gujarat heavyweight is concerned about the manner in which Advani has been projecting Chauhan, scripting a direct comparison and any delay in the party’s decision would give his opponents time to build consensus around other names.
