The move to announce Narendra Modi as Bharatiya Janata Party?s choice for Prime Minister for 2014 has once again exposed the divide in the party with a powerful section, which includes L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Murli Manohar Joshi, weighing in favour of delaying the decision.

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In fact, matters seem to be getting more complicated with suggestions being floated that Modi should resign as Gujarat CM if he has to be named the PM candidate. Sources said this proposal has been mooted by the supporters of the section that is against ?immediate announcement? of the PM candidate.

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However, a large part of the BJP and the RSS, including president Rajnath Singh, M Venkaiah Naidu and RSS pointsperson Ramlal want the announcement to be made as early as next month, just after the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

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These differing views have remained unresolved despite quiet efforts to find a way out. Related: RSS forces Advani to toe BJP line on Modi

The supporting view is that the BJP has always looked to announce its candidate well in advance unlike the Congress.

This, sources said, is necessary to build a sustained campaign around Modi, especially because the party has to establish him as a national leader in a short time, which was not the case with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Advani as they had never been active in state politics.

The counter argument, however, is that the first focus of the BJP should be on the upcoming Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Rajasthan. These elections, according to those against announcing Modi?s name now, need to be fought on local issues than be turned into a prelude to the General Elections by projecting Modi right away.

A section within the BJP fear that any such move would remove the focus from governance issues in these States and turn it into a referendum on Modi. This, sources said, may adversely affect local dynamics and may even undermine their powerful faces in these States like Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhara Raje Scindia and Raman Singh.

By the looks of it, the issue is set to snowball into another factional fight even though insiders believe it may not be as bitter as the one leading up to Modi?s declaration as BJP?s campaign head. As of now, the effort is to keep a lid on this till the end of the Monsoon Session as a national executive is due in September.

The debate over the timing and the manner of Modi?s projection follows a lot of spadework undertaken by the BJP and RSS leadership after Modi was chosen as chief campaigner at the Goa national executive in June.

Barely a month later, Advani, Joshi and Singh went to Nagpur and held separate meetings with the RSS leadership to discuss the next steps after the Goa executive. The following week saw RSS leaders from across the country going into a huddle at Amravati, where the BJP president also made a daylong appearance, to obtain their feedback.

After all these discussions, Modi was called to Nagpur on July 16 by the RSS leadership for a meeting on the deliberations at Amravati. While no official statement ever came, the message filtering out from the meeting indicated that Modi?s projection as PM candidate was a clear possibility. In many ways, sources indicated that these confabulations triggered a serious discussion on this issue.

It?s learnt that RSS conveyed to party seniors that their cadre feedback suggested a groundswell for Modi and this message should not be overlooked. After this, the BJP was left with little choice except for the prerogative to choose the timing of the announcement. On this, too, the party is struggling to achieve a consensus.

THE DEBATE

Delay the naming

Who: Section including Advani, Sushma, Joshi

Why: State polls this year will become a referendum on Modi when they should be fought on local issues; may undermine Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Raman Singh,

Vasundhara Raje

Name him now

Who: RSS, section of BJP including, Rajnath Singh, M Venkaiah Naidu, Ramlal

Why: Need to build him as national leader, this helps; tap ?groundswell?