Dec 11: History repeats itself, one era ends and another begins. A new era under the leadership of veteran Hindu nationalist politician commenced with the name forwarding by the Bhartiya Janta party as Lal Krishna Advani would be the next prime-ministerial nominee culminated into the end of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s era.
National party president Rajnath Singh made this announcement after the BJP’s parliamentary board meeting that the unanimous decision has come over the name of Advani to lead the party into the next general election. He said after the message received from Mr. Vajpayee that he would not be able to play an active role due to ill-health and said Advani should lead the party.
Advani flanked by all senior party leaders was present at the press conference hurriedly called on Monday evening by Mr. Rajnath Singh.
Advani thanked the party leadership for reposing trust in him and pledged that he would do everything to discharge his onerous responsibilities that he has been saddled with.
Mr. Advani has been known in the political arena for making a forthright comment. He had started his career from a journalist but his strong advocacy of Hindutva brought him into politics through the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh as its branch secretary in 1942.
He has been president of the Bhartiya Janta Party thrice; first tenure was from 1986 to 1991. The second tenure as president was from 1993 to 1998. He was president after the NDA government completed its tenure. He was the Deputy Prime Minister in the National Democratic Alliance government.
But the way was not easy for him to reach such a remarkable position. It took a complete organised path and took no shortcut. He joined the Bhartiya Jana Sangh and was elected an MP from 1970 to 1975. Although the BJP government came into power in 1999 but from very early he has been helping the party to grow from the grass root level. In 1984, BJP has only two parliamentary seats.
Advani’s organisational skill remained no longer hidden and the quality revealed when he started his Rath Yatra in 1990 in support of a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. Advani could not forget the haunting moment when he was made responsible for the movement that led to the incident following the demolition of the 16 th century mosque, Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. In the recent years, the Apex Court has made him free from the controversial Babri Masjid demolition case.
He was Home Minister in the Vajpayee cabinet from April 1999. On June 29, 2002, Advani sprang a surprise by becoming Deputy Prime Minister in the NDA government. He became Leader of the Opposition in the 14th Lok Sabha.
Advani always supported Vajpayee and helped him becoming the face of the party. But in the political arena this step to making Vajpayee, the BJP head and Prime Minister is considered by many as a political compulsion as Advani was too much of a hardliner to be acceptable to other NDA constituents.
Advani was the natural contender for the nominee of prime minister with the Vajpayee’s failing health and old age as the leadership requires energy, enthusiasm and stamina. Moreover, nobody in the party has courage and power which could challenge his position.
With a view to remove hindutva tag tried an image makeover during his trip to Pakistan with his remarks on Mohammad Ali Jinnah that landed him into trouble with RSS and other outfits within the party. Consequently, Advani had to take a back seat.
Although party leaders denied that the issue had any connection to Gujarat polls but many believe that the step was a signal to Narendra Modi that he should not view himself as a future BJP prime minister.
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