File photo of Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh (R).
Top leaders of the BJP and more than 13 Sangh affiliated organisations are participating in a crucial two-day coordination meet that will focus on the larger game plan of the 2014 elections. Narendra Modi is the only Chief Minister invited.
A day before the meet, Mr Modi and BJP president Rajnath Singh met top leaders of its ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), to discuss the agenda for the meet as well as possible resistance to Mr Modi's elevation to the party's Prime Ministerial candidate from top BJP leaders.
Senior BJP leaders LK Advani and Sushma Swaraj reportedly want the announcement naming Mr Modi delayed till after Assembly elections are held in five states this November.
But the RSS reportedly favours making the announcement before those elections are notified - expected by September 22, and is girding for a revolt from the anti-Modi group in the BJP.
The RSS, which sits in on important decision-making in the party, has thrown its weight behind Mr Modi. On Saturday, the RSS said that it has conveyed "its decision" to the BJP, when asked who it would like projected as presumptive PM in 2014.
"The Sangh has made its role clear. The party has to decide whose name to announce and when to do it. We have given our opinion to the BJP. They have to decide," senior RSS leader Manmohan Vaidya said after the organisation's head Mohan Bhagwat concluded an extended exercise to build consensus in the BJP over Mr Modi.
The BJP president has repeatedly said that the party's parliamentary board, a group of top 12 leaders, will decide who the BJP's prime ministerial candidate will be. Mr Singh is expected to call a meeting of the board soon to take a final decision.
Sources say Mr Modi could officially be named the BJP's PM candidate before September 19, since it marks the beginning of shraadh, a 15-day period just before the Navarati festival that is considered inauspicious for beginning anything important. The party, say sources, would like to make the crucial announcement before that.