The expected finally happened at Goa. A short while ago, Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh announced to national media that he has appointed Narendra Modi as the chairman of the party's campaign committee for the 2014 general election.

Coming as it did in the face of stiff opposition and a petulant boycott by party elder L K Advani, this is a decisive step that might fire up the BJP which has been accused of being a guileless and rudderless oppostion party. The party has been as much at the receiving end of public ridicule for being a political wimp as the Congress has attracted public anger for its corruption-ridden rule.

But even then, for the BJP this is still a half-step. The party stopped short of, not unexpectedly, declaring Modi as their prime ministerial candidate. This was necessary to give its NDA allies such as Nitish Kumar the time and room for manoeuvre. But for the Gujarat strongman it is a giant leap in many ways. The manner in which this decision was steamrollered suggests that the RSS has played a very strong hand on his behalf. That the RSS chose to catapult Modi to the national centrestage over the head Advani makes it clear that the parivar has chosen its future course. This promotion to national prominence could deter any suspected gameplan of the Congress party to chargesheet Modi in any one of the many cases of fake encounters that are with the Central Bureau of Investigation because any such move would only strengthen him politically.

And, finally, having been made the chairman of the campaign committee Modi is the closest to being projected as the prime ministerial candidate for 2014. Of course, there can be many a slip between the cup and lip but if Modi is the most popular leader today and has been put at the helm by eclipsing Advani because there is no other leader in the party to ignite popular imagination, it is tough to contemplate today that somebody will emerge in the next few months to upstage him. That, however, does not mean Modi has crossed all hurdles within the party and alliance. One more hurdle, that of the BJP going to the election without a prime ministerial face, still remains.