New Delhi:
At a meeting in Delhi on Thursday of the BJP's top 12 leaders,
Narendra Modi and LK Advani were placed next to each other - a tactical seating plan to suggest that their rift has ended.
Mr Advani had quit all his party posts last month when Mr Modi, who is the Chief Minister of Gujarat, was chosen to head the BJP's election campaign. The 85-year-old rescinded his resignation a day later.
The agenda for Thursday's meeting was to develop strategy for elections, first in important states like Delhi, and then for the central government. To ensure that all top leaders remain committed and accountable, Mr Modi has reportedly turned the team of the party's general secretaries into his campaign committee.
Mr Modi's plans will kick into action today, when he will address around 1500 party workers and leaders in Bihar with a teleconference. The BJP was in power in the state till last month, when it was dumped by its senior partner, the Janata Dal United or JDU. For months, JDU leader and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had derided Mr Modi, always without naming him, for being a divisive leader and failing to check the riots in Gujarat in 2002 in which hundreds of Muslims were killed.
The break-up was caused by Mr Modi's selection as campaign-in-charge of the BJP. But for years before this, the JDU had banned Mr Modi from campaigning in Bihar, a writ the BJP had accepted.
So by making the state his launch pad has special appeal for Mr Modi.
On July 16, he will visit Bhubaneshwar. And then at the end of the month, he will travel to Hyderabad.