BJP leader L K Advani wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week recommending that the award be given to Vajpayee. The demand was followed by similar requests from several other political parties, who also pitched in with names of their leaders. Apparently in a fix after these developments, the BJP has lately refrained from talking about the issue.
Occasional lovers' tiffs have marked the history of RSS-BJP relations. To think that Nagpur will bring about any change in leadership is a misreading of both its intent and its power, points out Shekhar Gupta.
The Congress on Tuesday attempted to drag Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani and the saffron party into the Malegaon blast case controversy, accusing the BJP's prime ministerial candidate and the party of making the 'first political interference' in the terror case. "The internal security of the country is today threatened by two As -- Advani and Abhinav Bharat," senior party leader M Veerappa Moily told reporters.
The BJP and its senior leader L K Advani may have closed the chapter on the Jinnah controversy, but for the VHP, a key member of the Sangh Parivar, the issue is not yet "clear". "Things have to be made clearer by him (Advani)," senior VHP leader Ashok Singhal said on Thursday.
The BJP will go ahead with the scheduled visit of L K Advani to North East despite the e-mail threat given by suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists to eliminate him.
Congress on Friday ridiculed L K Advani over his reiteration that Manmohan Singh is the weakest Prime Minister asking the Bharatiya Janata Party leader and his party to "bring some novelty at least in the phraseology".
The meeting with Advani comes a day after she met senior party leader and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
While about 8,000 people are in the long list of invitees, the select list features 506 A-listers, including prominent politicians, leading industrialists, top film stars, sportspersons, diplomats, judges and high priests.
Asking the Orissa government to order an expeditious probe into the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four others in Kandhamal district, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Sunday expressed outrage over the incident.Advani said, "The fact that he was assassinated on the auspicious day of Janmashtami while celebrating the festival, reveals an ominous motive behind the incident, suspected to have been committed by Maoists."
Against the backdrop of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah slamming him on the issue of revocation of special status to the state, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Friday advised him not to use words like "cheating and deceiving" and clarified that his party has always been opposed to Article 370.
Meanwhile BJP President Rajnath Singh told newsmen that the terrorists were getting bolder. He also spoke to Modi and asked all political parties to join hands in fighting terrorism. He alleged that the country had become unsafe for common people. "5,000 sleeper modules" have come up in last few years, he alleged.
"I had said in April that corruption will be fought, but I would not tolerate it in my own party. We have been strict where corruption is concerned. We acted immediately when the Lokayukta report on illegal mining was out." -- That was the extent to which the veteran leader addressed the corruption issue in Karnataka.
The Congress on Monday alleged that senior BJP leader L K Advani had sought to distance himself through his memoirs from all the 'controversies that had plagued' the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government during its five-year rule. The Congress asked why Advani was silent on whether a ransom of $200 million was given as demanded for the release of Mohammad Masood Azhar despite narrating the hijack drama in his book.
BJP patriarch L K Advani wanted to transform the BJP from a narrow, exclusivist and radical party into a more inclusive, reformist one, says Mohan Guruswamy
Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani's anti-corruption rally at Bangalore has been cancelled. The yatra will still pass through Mangalore and Udupi as per schedule. No official reason for the cancellation of the rally has been given. According to sources, the rally was cancelled as most BJP ministers in the state are facing major corruption charges.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani's rally in Bengaluru is, in comparison to all previous rallies organised by the party, turning out to be a toned-down event.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders L K Advani and Arun Jaitley on Wednesday visited Tihar jail to meet Sudheendra Kulkarni and former party members of Parliament lodged at the jail in connection with the cash-for-vote scam.
Feeling angry and unhappy over being sidelined within his party, Bollywood actor-turned-politician and Lok Sabha MP from Patna Sahib, Shatrughan Sinha has decided to boycott BJP president Amit Shah's rally on Tuesday.
Addressing a public rally in Sabroom in poll-bound Tripura, Shah said that the Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist had put the Ram Mandir issue in the jurisdiction of the court for long, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for it after the Supreme Court's order.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Wednesday said he wanted his party's ex-MPs who had received bail in the cash-for-vote case to be declared innocent and honoured in Parliament for "strengthening democracy."
Dubbing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the most hapless Prime Minister India has ever seen, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Friday slammed the United Progressive Alliance government as the most ineffective, corrupt and indifferent dispensation since Independence.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani indicated on Monday that he had no plans to retire from politics."I do not want to retire," Advani told BBC news channel in an interview. He told the questioner that he gives advice to the party whenever it is sought.
Even though the RSS buckled under pressure and let go Nitin Gadkari, it did not yield ground to L K Advani completely. The Sangh preferred to go with Rajnath Singh as the BJP president, rejecting Advani's first choice, Sushma Swaraj. More feuds are expected in the saffron joint family in the days to come. Poornima Joshi examines
Varun, by remaining silent on the BJP action against him but at the same time remaining unperturbed and active, has shown that he is no pushover, observe Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani was not amused with some of the party MPs joining RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and SP chief Mulayam Singh to hold a mock Parliament session and reprimanded his colleague Gopinath Munde for participating in it.
The government on Monday reached out to BJP to seek its support in passage of the contentious Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill with Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde wanting the opposition party to spell out its concerns on the issue.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday called for a "main front" of all non-BJP parties to take on the ruling alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and asserted that the decision on its leadership can be taken later.
Ending suspense, the Bharatiya Janata Party has picked actor-turned-politician Smriti Irani to take on Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi in Amethi.
The government should publish a White Paper Indian wealth stashed abroad: Advani.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday said the party will welcome the support of anyone in national interest, even as most exit polls and its own predictions give a majority to the National Democratic Alliance led by it.
Gandhi had recently alleged in London that the structures of Indian democracy are under "brutal attack" and there is a full-scale assault on the institutions of the country.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday raked up another controversy over Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, with L K Advani quoting a book to allege that then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru called his home minister a "total communalist" when the latter suggested that army be sent to take over a defiant Hyderabad State after Independence.
The party also rejigged its Central Election Committee and included former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, Om Mathur and its women wing chief Vanathi Srinivasan.
The Janata Dal-United on Sunday claimed there was no doubt left that Lalu Prasad would support Narendra Modi as prime ministerial candidate as the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader was "panicky" due to Congress' inclination towards arch-rival Nitish Kumar.
Asked by the Outlook magazine in an interview whether Modi was 'standing above the other leaders of the second generation in the BJP' and if he was 'heir apparent', Advani replied, 'No, I would not say so, especially when we have string of chief ministers who have been performing so well.'
Bharatiya Janata Party President Rajnath Singh on Tuesday denied reports that the party was under pressure from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh over the crisis triggered by the resignation of senior leader L K Advani from all party positions.
The Supreme Court verdict on the Ram temple showed India's secular character to the world, Shah said.
