New Delhi/Nagpur, July 5: L.K. Advani today met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohanrao Bhagwat and general secretary Suresh “Bhaiyyaji” Joshi at the Sangh’s Nagpur headquarters.

Advani — whose declared mission not so long ago was to minimise, if not eliminate, the RSS’s interventions in the BJP’s affairs — came out and told the media: “If there was no Sangh, there would be no BJP.” He added that he was “ideologically” affiliated with the Sangh since he was 14.

The two separate meetings he had with Bhagwat and Bhaiyyaji are part of a process of consultation to determine if and when the BJP ought to name Narendra Modi as its candidate for Prime Minister or whether the party should go for a “collective” leadership, a source said.

Yesterday, Murli Manohar Joshi spent a day in Nagpur with Bhagwat and his colleagues. Tomorrow, BJP president Rajnath Singh is expected to be in the city before heading for Calcutta.

There were unconfirmed reports that Modi may visit the Sangh’s headquarters on Sunday.

The source said having whipped up cadre expectations and sentiments over Modi to a high that was not witnessed even during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s time, any sign that the decision-makers were dithering and having second thoughts over Modi’s projection would “demoralise” the workers.

It is learnt that Advani and Joshi — both opposed to Modi’s foregrounding in varying degrees — cautioned Bhagwat and Bhaiyyaji that even if the BJP finished ahead of the Congress in 2014, it would need allies for which a “face” more “acceptable and friendlier” than Modi’s might be required.

A Sangh source said the RSS was readying to mobilise all its affiliates to work for the BJP in 2014. “The NDA has virtually collapsed. But the Sangh wants the BJP not to think of pre-poll alliances but focus on building the party’s own strength across the country,” the source said.