Days after L K Advani appeared to have preferred Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over Narendra Modi in the race for BJP's prime ministerial candidate, party president Rajnath Singh on Monday (June 3) said the Gujarat heavyweight was the "most popular leader" in the country. True to his reputation for humility, Chouhan himself described Modi as his "senior and elder brother" and sought to rule himself out of race for being projected as BJP's prime ministerial face. "I think Advani's statement has been wrongly interpreted. There cannot be two opinions that Narendra Modi is the most popular leader in the country," Singh told a press conference in Hyderabad.

In a debate moderated by TIMES NOW's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, panelists -- Smriti Irani, MP, Rajya Sabha, BJP; Arati Jerath, Senior Journalist; Sanjay Jha, Spokesperson, Congress; Kumar Ketkar, Chief Editor, Daily Divya Marathi, Bhaskar Group; Sankarshan Thakur, Roving Editor, The Telegraph; Manisha Priyam, Political Analyst and Kamal Faruqui, Natl Secy, SP -- discuss whether BJP realistically can hide the Modi verus Advani rift anymore.