Ahead of the party's brainstorming session next week, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani has met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat amidst clear indications that the Shimla meet may skip the issue of who and what exactly were the reasons behind the party's defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.
Bharatiya Janata Party senior leader L K Advani has told party leaders that he does not want to continue as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha for the next five years, senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu said on Friday."He told us that he does not want to continue till the tenure of the 15th Lok Sabha and would like to hand over the responsibility to some other colleague," Naidu said.He said Advani was elected leader of the party for the 15th Lok Sabha.
The BJP's strategy seem to be to wean away allies from the Congress, in Dravidian Tamil Nadu, and maybe later in UP, Bihar and elsewhere, though in slow doses, but without wooing them into a new alliance. The idea seems to be only to weaken the INDIA bloc from within -- and leaving it at that, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani has strongly pitched for holding simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and state assemblies which should have a "fixed tenure" and sought the President's initiative in this regard, saying frequent polls affect decision-making process
Modi credited Advani for "selflessly and diligently" building the BJP and "wonderfully" mentoring its workers.
Over 400 incumbent Lok Sabha members including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Lal Krishna Advani and Rajnath Singh have not yet declared their assets and liability details, according to an RTI reply.
Taking strong objection to Gandhi's remarks, Swaraj tweeted: "Rahulji - Advani ji is our father figure. Your words have hurt us deeply. Please try to maintain some decorum of your speech."
Khurana, a party strongman in Delhi till a few years ago, has sent a letter to Advani containing his demand.
Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Sunday said the Lok Sabha elections next month will see his party put up its best-ever performance.
Profit motives shouldn't override national interests, said BJP leader at the Business Standard annual awards function. Though he did not name Ranbaxy, the signal from the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate was clear.
"India Shining slogan was a mistake. The better slogan would have been India Rising," Advani, who was Deputy Prime Minister during the National Democratic Alliance rule when the slogan was coined, told media persons in Shimla.
A decision on the seats from where Narendra Modi and L K Advani will contest in Gujarat will be taken on Wednesday when the Bharatiya Janata Party's Central Election Committee considers the party's another list of candidates for Lok Sabha polls.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said the question of L K Advani's resignation does not arise once it has been rejected by the party's highest decision-making body. "The question of resignation does not arise once we have rejected it," Swaraj, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha told reporters.
Against the backdrop of Bharatiya Janata Party veteran L K Advani indicating that he would not be the prime ministerial candidate in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Wednesday said it does not issue any "diktat" to the party leaders on such issues and it was up to the party to take a call.
A day after locking horns with Manmohan Singh during the Presidential Address debate, senior BJP leader L K Advani on Thursday said the prime minister had breached Parliamentary propriety by making "false" claims that enhanced pension announced for army personnel had been met.
Amid allegations and counter-allegations at the Bharatiya Janata Party meet to discuss the poll defeat, the party's top leader L K Advani said internal bickering had demoralised the grassroot workers of the party. The top eader also emphasized on Hindutva and advocated strong relations with RSS during his speech at the BJP National Executive meeting in New Delhi.
With only around 100 days away from the Lok Sabha polls, senior BJP leader L K Advani has used his Urdu website to reach out to Muslims to say he is in no way related to the Babri Masjid demolition.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Monday for the first time targeted Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is considered close to him, by saying that ongoing Lok Sabha polls outcome will prove the impact of the Janata Dal-United's decision to end its alliance with the BJP.
President A P J Abdul Kalam presented the awards in Central Hall of Parliament.
External Affairs Minister and leader of House in Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee called up Leader of the Opposition L K Advani expressing willingness to re-schedule the session as suggested by the latter at an all-party meeting on Friday on account of festivals, including Diwali, and the assembly elections.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti Member of Parliament and Telugu actress Vijayashanthi on Wednesday met veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani in Pragnapur, in her Lok Sabha constituency of Medak, amidst media reports that she might join the saffron party soon. Vijayshanthi, who was in BJP earlier, stood beside Advani, who is on his countrywide yatra, as he spoke from atop his rath. After concluding his speech, Advani said he welcomed her.
The issue of black money dominated in Lok Sabha on Wednesday with the Opposition asking the government to bring back an estimated Rs 25 lakh crore stashed away illegally in foreign banks and reveal the identity of depositors.
At this poignant historic moment one can only wish that institutions are not built by bricks and mortars, but also by the rich Parliamentary traditions which have stood the test of time which needs to be strengthened by all stakeholders, notes Rup Narayan Das, a former joint secretary of the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
Bhartiya Janata Party veteran leader Lal Krishna Advani on Saturday blasted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for putting up "indefensible defence" of bribery his Congress Party paid to survive the trust vote in the Lok Sabha in July 2008, in the wake of the WikiLeaks expose by citing the 2009 elections as the answer to the charge.
Amid growing clamour in the Bharatiya Janata Party to name Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for 2014 Lok Sabha elections, veteran BJP leader L K Advani said on Saturday there was no competition in the party for the top post.
The Congress and other parties on Sunday took a dig at Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani saying he has conceded defeat even before the race has begun for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections while some BJP leaders differed with him.
The coming weeks are sure to have a lot of drama unfolding in Maharashtra, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Tuesday said he suffered from an inferiority complex due to the oratorical skills of his party colleague Atal Bihari Vajpayee and now has the same problem when he hears Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj.
Most politicians and even non-politicians have been honoured because of what they were purported to be electorally worth for the ruling party of their time, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Lok Sabha witnessed a rare show of camaraderie between leader of Opposition L K Advani and leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday when the former lauded the latter for his role as the principal trouble-shooter of the government. Mukherjee blushed, smiled and welcomed the statement with folded hands as the House applauded with thumping of desks.
'The BJP is using administrative machinery to fight elections'
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani is understood to have indicated that he will not complete his five-year term as the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and make way for his deputy Sushma Swaraj. Highly placed party sources said Advani also conveyed to Arun Jaitley that the latter would continue to be the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Though Advani did not specify when he would hang up his boots, he is unlikely to continue for long.
Leader of Opposition L K Advani has contended that he had no desire to become BJP president again after the 2004 shock defeat which had depleted the NDA's strength in the Lok Sabha from 304 to 186. The responsibility for the defeat was collective and there was no question of pinning the blame on any individual, Advani wrote in his book My Country My Life.
There is no use of the BJP targeting the likes of Mamata Banerjee and M K Stalin, directly by the party's political bosses, both in Delhi and the respective state capitals, or even using the Raj Bhavans to fire those salvos from. Successive elections have proved that it's counter-productive, if anything. But the BJP is yet to understand it, acknowledge it, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
After throwing a virtual challenge to the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani by stating that he may contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on Thursday sprang a surprise when he visited the former for a luncheon meet. "Shekhawat visited Advani at his residence today and spent about two hours with him. He also had lunch with the senior leader," informed a source close to Advani.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal mounted a blazing campaign in the hot summer after he was released from the Tihar jail on interim bail on May 10, drawing huge crowds at rallies and roadshows, but it proved insufficient to propel his Aam Aadmi Party past the Bharartiya Janata Party challenge in the national capital.
What might force the BJP to sit up and take notice is his letter to Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot requesting him to probe the Rs 22,000 crore worth corruption charge against his predecessor Vasundhararaje Scindia which was incidentally levelled by the Congress party
Unhappy over the imposition of Central rule in Meghalaya, senior Nationalist Congress Party leader P A Sangma on Friday held discussions on the issue with opposition leader in the Lok Sabha L K Advani and Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat in New Delhi.