End of road for Advani

Manas Dasgupta
Ahmedabad, March 22

BJP workers in Gujarat broke into celebrations as soon as party president Amit Shah’s candidature was announced for the Gandhinagar constituency last night. The decision means the end of the political road for party veteran LK Advani.

Party sources admitted that Advani was not consulted and the decision to drop him was taken by the central parliamentary board headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah.

Advani had been contesting successfully from Gandhinagar since 1991. He shifted to Gandhinagar after the massive success of his “Ram Rathyatra” from Somnath to Ayodhya which, however, was terminated with his arrest in Bihar. The yatra by then had rejuvenated the BJP and brought to the political fore young RSS “pracharak” Modi, who was picked by Advani as one of the organisers of the yatra.

The success of the yatra helped Modi to move from the RSS to the Gujarat unit of the BJP. In 1995, when the BJP for the first time won a clear majority in the Assembly and formed a ministry under Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, Modi was hand-picked by Patel and Advani to act as the go-between the organisational and the executive wings of the party. 

Modi was also instrumental in leaving behind Keshubhai Patel and Shankarsinh Vaghela who built the BJP from scratches to become a power to reckon with in the state in just nine years and partner in a coalition government in the state in 1989. 

As Vaghela later complained, “excessive interference” by the coordinator in the administrative affairs of the Patel government became a flash point for Vaghela to revolt against his own government. Advani adopted a middle line and agreed to take Modi with him to Delhi.

In the 1998 Assembly elections, the BJP returned with a clear majority paving the way for Keshubhai Patel to become the CM second time. 

Modi got his opportunity when the BJP started losing popularity following the Patel government’s alleged failure to handle the 2001 killer earthquake. He was sent by the central leadership in October, 2001, to replace Patel as the CM.