New Delhi, Jun 5 (FP) : At a time the party stands divided over the nomination of Narendra Modi for a larger national role, LK Advani may have finally given his assent  for the Gujarat Chief Minister to head the party’s national election campaign but he’s thrown in a caveat that his former protege and BJP may find hard to follow.

Advani’s recent comments praising Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had reportedly prompted Modi to speak to BJP president Rajnath Singh about it and seek a clarification, a move that even the party stalwart wasn’t too pleased about.

However, according to an Indian Express report, Advani has now said that he is fine with Modi heading the party’s campaign committee if other senior leaders agree to it, but wants a second committee to handle the upcoming state assembly polls. And he doesn’t want Modi heading that committee.

An unnamed BJP leader was quoted as saying:

“Advaniji made it clear that he has no objections to Modi being projected as the party campaign committee chief. He, however, said that a separate election management committee needs to be constituted, and his suggestion was that both announcements — on the campaign committee chairman and the election management committee — must be made simultaneously.”

The decision by Advani comes after former party chief Nitin Gadkari reportedly refused to head the party’s campaign committee and has even refused to head the second committee to oversee the upcoming state polls.

Senior party leaders, including party chief Rajnath Singh, while supporting the Gujarat Chief Minister have been restrained in naming him for a bigger role in the party. And as for Advani, all of them have said that his statements on Chouhan and Gujarat have been misunderstood.

Speaking to CNN-IBN, leader of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley toed the party line on Modi, and revealed little about their future plans for him. He, however, acknowledged that the Gujarat Chief Minister’s popularity was well known in the party.

“I can only tell you that the ground level support for Mr Modi in the country and within the party is huge and everybody acknowledges that,” he said.

He also attempted to defend Advani’s statement saying that it had been made on the campaign trail in Madhya Pradesh and the leader had also praised the development in Gujarat.

Jaitley said that Advani’s statements were in keeping with the expectation that he would be frank in expressing his opinion with the party and it was a “style he had adopted over the years”.

While  the easiest thing for BJP leaders to do currently is back Modi’s rise in the party, like a Karnataka unit which already voted for him to become the PM candidate, ignoring Advani’s advice would alienate one of the party’s biggest names. His motives for making these statements may be a subject of conjecture, but Advani’s opposition to the rise of the Gujarat Chief Minister is likely a strong indication of rifts to come.