Narendra Modi likely to get key role in Rajnath Singh's Team 2014

New Delhi: The BJP is likely to unveil the team that will design its campaign for 2014 and Narendra Modi is expected to be given a key role in the first official sign that he will be the party's showstopper in next year's elections.

Party president Rajnath Singh is meeting senior leader LK Advani ahead of the announcement of the new team. This is part of a massive overhaul as Mr Singh selects his team of office-bearers, carefully balancing the interests of the BJP with those of its ideological mentor, the RSS.

Mr Modi, sources say, will be inducted into the BJP's parliamentary board, the party's highest decision making body that has on it only 11 top-ranking leaders. He will be the only Chief Minister to be included in this select group, according to sources, and his many supporters in the party say this signals an end to the debate - who after Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani.

The BJP's Gandhi, Varun, is expected to get an elevation, say sources. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's first cousin, 10 years his junior, may be made a general secretary. He was recently exonerated of charges of making hate speeches in the last Lok Sabha elections.    

With the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS mandating that the BJP rekindle a Hindutva agenda in these elections, Uma Bharti, former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, is also expected to find a place in Team Rajnath Singh.

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For Ms Bharti it will be a political resurrection that has taken a long time coming. She was expelled from the party for reasons of discipline and the comeback has been grueling. Her detractors in the party continue to voice apprehension about her mercurial style of functioning.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, the BJP's chief spokesperson and deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, is expected to continue in his current post, sources say, while former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha may get a senior post, something that, sources say, can be attributed to his public tirade earlier this year as he attempted to scuttle the re-appointment of former party president Nitin Gadkari.

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Among others who might get key roles in the party is Amit Shah, who is out on bail in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case after spending three months in jail. Mr Shah, who contested and won in the Gujarat Assembly elections held in December last, is known to be close to Mr Modi and if he is made party general secretary it will be another acknowledgement of the Gujarat CM's growing clout at the party's headquarters.

The list, still being given last-minute touches, is reportedly being put together with the active participation of the RSS, which played an important role in selecting Rajnath Singh as the new party president after its first choice Nitin Gadkari was cancelled by charges of corruption against him and an Income Tax raid very close to election day. Some members of Mr Gadkari's team are expected to be retained.