LK Advani: The man who couldn't become PM or President
Lal Krishna Advani, one of BJP's founding fathers, is credited for scripting BJP's landmark win in the 1998 polls. Advani went from being BJP's "loh purush" to PM AB Vajpayee's "shadow" to PM candidate and finally the party elder. Though prime-ministership and presidentship eluded him, Advani's contribution to India's history can't be ignored. As Advani turns 90 today, let's look at his momentous journey!
Advani started out as an RSS karyakarta
Advani was born in 1927 to a family of Sindhi Hindus in Karachi (present-day Pakistan). The family shifted to Hyderabad when Advani was 14. In Hyderabad, a friend introduced him to the RSS. Inspired by their ideals of patriotism and discipline, he became a swayamsevak. After studying law from Mumbai's government law college, in 1947, Advani was made responsible for the Sangh's Rajasthan activities.
Advani's entry in active politics: Dawn of the BJP
When Shyama Prasad Mukherjee founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), RSS' political wing, in 1951, Advani joined him. He became RS member in 1970. In 1977, he went on to serve as I&B minister in the Janata party, a Morarji Desai-headed coalition of parties opposing 1975's National Emergency. After collapse of Desai's government and BJS' breakdown, Advani and Vajpayee formed the BJP in 1980.
Chief architect of the rath yatra that propelled BJP
By 1989, BJP had increased its tally from 2 LS seats in 1984 to 86 seats. Now, it needed some magic to achieve power at the Centre. With this aim, Advani decided to undertake a rath yatra demanding the construction of Ram Mandir in place of Ayodhya's Babri Masjid, an emotive issue then. Starting from Gujarat's Somnath temple, Advani's rath traveled 300kms a day.
BJP wrests power, Advani becomes HM and later deputy PM
The Hindutva wave that followed Advani's rath yatra led BJP to win 182 seats in the 1998 elections. However, to form a government, they required help from "secularists" George Fernandes, Karunanidhi and Chandrababu Naidu. Vajpayee was BJP's only Hindu socialist and hence an acceptable PM candidate. Thus, Advani was relegated to the home ministry and in 2002 was made deputy PM.
In 2009, Advani is named PM candidate but BJP loses
Following BJP's defeat in 2004 LS elections, Advani became opposition leader in LS. Around this time, BJP-RSS relations were fraught. RSS was unhappy with BJP's "moderate" Hindutva stance. Thus, during 2009 elections, when Advani was finally named PM candidate, RSS instructed him to focus on Hindutva's core agenda. But alas, BJP failed to win and Advani's last shot at Prime-ministership hit the dust.
Modi becomes PM, cages Advani in the Margdarshak Mandal
After 2009, Advani's role in the party began to fade. Advani was unsupportive of Modi's prime-ministerial candidature, which pushed his alienation further. Modi paid back in kind as after becoming PM, he cooped up Advani with other senior leaders in the Margdarshak Mandal (advisory body). Ironically, when Modi was being slammed for the 2002 Gujarat riots by BJP/RSS, Advani had stood up for him.
How will history judge Advani?
Reportedly, in his heydays, Advani had a room in his house for conducting press conferences/interviews. This shows how confident he was about being relevant in politics. However, now not only has he been reduced to a silent spectator, he was also overlooked for the President's post. Nonetheless, history will always remember him as the man who revived BJP when no one else could.
