Mumbai:
The BJP is expected to announce Narendra Modi as the face of its campaign for the national election at a conclave in Goa this weekend.
Sharad Pawar, the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, offered this wry take. "Experience shows that whenever a lot of hot air is created about something, that balloon always bursts!"
Mr Pawar's party is a member of the UPA, the Congress-led coalition that will ask voters for a third successive term, so his comments are not unexpected.
But within Mr Modi's party, a group of detractors headed by stalwart LK Advani are also stridently opposed to the Gujarat Chief Minister being declared the BJP's election chief, mainly because it's likely to segue into a prime ministerial nomination for him. A section of the BJP's senior leaders believe they deserve that chance at running for the country's top job.
Mr Modi's chances of being declared the head of a committee that will handle election strategy and campaigning surged this week after he wrested six important seats from the opposition Congress in by-elections.
The BJP's president, Rajnath Singh, and the party's ideological mentor, the RSS, feel that if the chief minister is not promoted, dissent will spread among party workers who have been clamouring for a formal acknowledgement of Mr Modi's A+ status.
Mr ADvani called in sick today to skip a meeting of the party's 12-member decision-making board today, but will attend the wider conclave that starts tomorrow. Two other senior leaders, seen as close to him, Uma Bharti and Jaswant Singh, say they will skip Goa altogether for health reasons.