New Delhi:
Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley today said to NDTV that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's popularity among party cadres "is self-evident" and that he has "a special place in the BJP's campaign."
His comments come as a group of leaders within the party, allegedly led by veteran LK Advani - are lobbying hard though unsuccessfully, to prevent Mr Modi's ascension to the very top of the BJP, and his selection as the party's presumptive prime minister.
Mr Jaitley said allegations of Mr Advani's campaign against Mr Modi are "unfair." But as part of his strategy to check Mr Modi's growing stature, Mr Advani had approached former BJP president Nitin Gadkari to head an election management committee, which will decide the campaign and strategy for crucial state elections over the next few months. That is a post that the BJP's parent body, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh or RSS, wants assigned urgently to Mr Modi to signal his VVIP status to his detractors.
Mr Gadkari has reportedly made it clear to Mr Advani that he does not want to take sides in the battle between the camps that are for and against Mr Modi .
The strife within the BJP's senior leaders, many of who aspire to be the party's prime ministerial candidate, is likely to be discussed at a meeting of senior BJP leaders that begins in Goa on Saturday.
Over the weekend, the internal conflict was hung out to dry in public as Mr Advani appeared to put down the Gujarat chief minister by suggesting that his counterpart in Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, has performed better.
Yesterday, the BJP president Rajnath Singh said that Mr Advani's remarks had been misinterpreted.