Manmohan greets Vajpayee on his birthday

Singh met Vajpayee and presented him a bouquet and spent about 15 minutes at his house Monday morning.

The gesture by the prime minister came a day after Vajpayee at a public meeting in his parliamentary constituency in Lucknow, capital of the politically key state of Uttar Pradesh, attacked the Congress-led federal government as well as the state government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party for their "failures" on national security, economic policies and law and order fronts. Vajpayee had recently also criticised the US Congress' legislation on India-America civilian nuclear deal.

But there is more political meaning in Singh's gesture to Vajpayee on his birthday, political analysts said adding it came when main opposition BJP is caught in an internal churning over who would be its prime ministerial candidate in the next general elections due in another two and half years.

The churning was set off by the Leader of the Opposition and Vajpayee's party colleague LK Advani who, in a television interview, said that he did not expect Vajpayee to propose his name for the post of the prime minister in the event of his party coming back to power.

Advani however said that although his name would not be proposed by Vajpayee for the top post, he would still be the party's candidate for the prime minister.

BJP President Rajnath Singh, at the party's national executive in Lucknow at the weekend, also signalled that he would like to be in the race for the prime ministerial job if BJP were to regain power at the Centre.

Murli Manohar Joshi, another senior leader of BJP and a known critic of Advani, also said that Vajpayee was the undisputed leader of his party and keeping this mind he alone qualifies to be projected for the top post.

Analysts said that Manmohan Singh, by greeting Vajpayee on his birthday, sought to send a signal that it was his predecessor who could have wider acceptability as their top leader and thereby deepen the divide already existing in BJP on the issue of prime ministership.

At the conclusion of BJP national executive and national council meetings in Lucknow, Vajpayee and Advani asked the party rank and file to prepare for the crucial elections to the Uttar Pradesh state assembly next year suggesting the exercise should be used as a springboard for the next parliamentary elections.

Vajpayee asked partymen to sink factionalism and indicated the outcome of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls would have a bearing on next parliamentary polls. In his inimitable style, he said the route to Delhi was through Lucknow. Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of parliamentary (Lok Sabha) seats.