Ahmedabad, June 17: Narendra Modi is known to keep his cards close to his chest, so no one is sure if he would pull a stunt at the BJP’s national executive meeting in Mumbai next week to disarm dissidents.

A senior official close to the Gujarat chief minister said the beleaguered leader could very well “play some unusual card” that would stun even his rivals.

The official may have had in mind Modi’s offer of resignation at the party’s national executive of April 2002 in Goa that had created ripples. In the aftermath of the Gujarat riots that year, then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was said to be in the mood to remove him.

But the executive rejected Modi’s offer and asked him to seek a fresh mandate. Back then, no one in Gujarat knew what he was up to till he reached Goa.

The situation, however, is different this time. With Vajpayee iterating that Gujarat would be “considered” at the coming executive meeting and most of his MLAs and party office-bearers keen on his ouster, Modi is on a sticky wicket.

A senior official at the chief minister’s office said Modi would effectively counter the rebels because he would be going armed with statistics and a comprehensive report on the BJP’s poor performance in Gujarat in the general elections. This is one reason fuelling the dissidence.

The rebels, however, are not sitting idle. Encouraged by Vajpayee’s musings, they, too, are preparing a “comprehensive report” on recent developments in the state, causes for the party’s poor Lok Sabha showing and MLAs’ and workers’ grievances against Modi. It would be handed to the national executive to kickstart a debate.

Sources said Keshubhai Patel would lead the charge against his arch rival in Mumbai. The former chief minister had openly sided with the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, the party’s farmer wing, that spearheaded an agitation against power-tariff hike ahead of the general elections.

The BKS is believed to have played a major role in the BJP’s poor electoral showing. The Modi camp disagrees. It maintains the party fared poorly because of a strong anti-Patel sentiment — some Patel candidates lost despite being renominated.

With even the RSS distancing itself from the pro-Modi campaign, the rebels feel no amount of “jugglery” can now save the chief minister.

The six national executive members from Gujarat — notably Keshubhai, state BJP chief Rajendrasinh Rana, state secretary Suresh Gandhi and former Union minister Kashiram Rana — are all opposed to Modi.

Amid several meetings by rebels over the past few weeks, Rajendrasinh, who dubs the situation “serious”, has been briefing the party chief and Kashiram, too, has called up M. Venkaiah Naidu and stressed the need for a leadership change.

Sources close to Modi said the “meeting might throw up unexpected surprises” and he would be given a chance to firefight by expanding the cabinet.