Click to play videoNew Delhi: Will Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi campaign in the Uttar Pradesh polls after giving Uttarakhand and Punjab a miss? The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hopeful he will.
However, the BJP's hindutva poster boy, a section feels, is unhappy with the rehabilitation of his friend-turned-foe, Sanjay Joshi.
The star campaigner of the BJP has till now given Punjab and Uttarakhand a miss, fuelling speculations that RSS poster boy is upset with the top BJP brass.
But now it appears that Narendra Modi has finally decided to pitch-in in the all important UP polls.
Modi's supporters insist that the Gujarat Chief Minister is busy with his own Sadbhavna campaign till the second week of February, but sources say that the real reason behind the internal strife is the rehabilitation of Sanjay Joshi, who has been made in-charge of party's preparations for UP polls by party president Nitin Gadkari.
Modi even skipped the last national executive of the BJP after Joshi was made in-charge of UP elections.
The BJP though is trying to downplay the issue.
The strife within has got the RSS worried, which is seeking the warring factions to bury hatchet in the run up to the polls. However, a section also feels replication of the Bihar model of campaigning in UP elections may be helpful.
Those citing the Bihar Model say despite Modi not campaigning in the state assembly elections, BJP though increased its vote shere by just 0.4 per cent, but almost doubled its seats in absence of any religious polarisation.
For the BJP, UP poll results are crucial in its gameplan for 2014 Lok Sabha elections in general, and its president Nitin Gadkari in particular who completes his three-year term this year end.
Any extension to Gadkari may well depend on how party fares in the state which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha.
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