Author: Ravish Tiwari
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: June 12, 2013
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/l-k-advani-does-a-uturn-okays-narendra-modi-for-bjp-campaign-chief/1125226/0

Days after praising Shivraj Singh Chouhan as a "humble man" who was a better administrator than Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) patriarch L K Advani is learnt to have acquiesced to the appointment of the Gujarat chief minister as the leader of the party's campaign committee.

With important Assembly elections ahead, the BJP leadership is likely to come under intense pressure to hand the mantle to Modi at the party's national executive scheduled over the weekend in Goa.

Highly placed BJP sources told The Indian Express Tuesday that Advani gave his consent for Modi's candidature during a meeting he had with party president Rajnath Singh a couple of days ago.

Singh had called on Advani over the weekend to discuss the agenda and resolutions for Goa.

The pressure from the party cadre to leverage Modi's popularity was learnt to have been discussed as well. Sources said Advani had told Singh that he had no objection to Singh making the announcement on Modi, subject to consultations with other members of the BJP parliamentary board.

However, Advani was learnt to have also insisted that a separate election management committee should be set up under a different person to oversee the election management from the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi through to the conclusion of the Lok Sabha election next year.

"Advaniji made it clear that he has no objections to Modi being projected as the party campaign committee chief. He, however, said that a separate election management committee needs to be constituted, and his suggestion was that both announcements — on the campaign committee chairman and the election management committee — must be made simultaneously," a BJP leader said.

Modi's name as campaign committee chief was first mooted by Nitin Gadkari towards the end of his presidentship of the party last year. Victory in the Gujarat assembly elections in December strengthened Modi's claim to the post, but speculation about Advani's objections was believed to have been holding the party leadership from proceeding.

In the face of mounting pressure from the cadre, Rajnath Singh has been buying time for the party leadership to reach a decision, describing Modi as the BJP's "most popular leader". Advani's green signal will add to the pressure on Singh to proceed at the earliest, even though the simultaneous demand by the veteran for the separate election management committee does leave him scope for more discussion.