LK Advani, architech of BJP's soaring popularity, turns 96 today: All you need to know
Advani was instrumental in the BJP's rise from two parliamentary seats in 1984 to becoming the single largest party in the Lok Sabha in 1996. He was awarded the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 1999.
Lal Krishna Advani, the longest-serving president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has seen a parliamentary career of nearly three decades. He is credited for scripting the unstoppable rise of BJP—of which he was a founding member—as a major political party in the country.
Advani was born on November 8, 1927, in pre-Partition Sindh. As a student in St. Patrick's School, Karachi, his patriotic ideals inspired him to join the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1942 at the age of 14.
He is widely regarded as an individual of great intellectual ability, strong principles, and unwavering support for the idea of a strong and prosperous India. As confirmed by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Advani Ji has 'never compromised on his core belief in nationalism, and yet has displayed flexibility in political responses whenever it was demanded by the situation'.
Family Details
Lal Krishan Advani’s father was Kishenchand Advani and his mother was Gyanidevi. His younger sister is Sheela.
Schooling and Career
Lal Krishna Advani did his schooling in Karachi at St. Patrick’s High School. He studied there for 6 years from 1936 – 1942. During the Quit India Movement (1942) he joined Dayaram Gidumal National College, Hyderabad. In 1944, he held a job as a teacher in Model High School, in Karachi.
Political Journey
In 1947, Advani migrated to Delhi after the partition and became an RSS pracharak in Rajasthan. From 1947 to 1951, he organised RSS work in Alwar, Bharatpur, Kota, Bundi and Jhalawar as RSS Secretary in the Karachi branch.
He became part of the Jana Sangh, BJP’s predecessor, in 1951 when it was formed by Syama Prasad Mookerjee. He was appointed as the secretary of the party’s unit in Rajasthan. In early 1957 – he was shifted to Delhi to assist Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He became a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1970 and held his seat till 1989. In December 1972, he was elected president of Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
He along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee played a pivotal role in founding the BJP in 1980. He emerged as the face of BJP’s aggressive and combative Hindutva ideology. He orchestrated the rise of the party in the 1990s with Vajpayee, taking the BJP from two parliamentary seats in 1984 to 121 seats in 1992 and 161 in 1996; making the 1996 elections a watershed in the Indian democracy. For the first time since independence, the Congress was dethroned from its preeminent position, and the BJP became the single largest party in the Lok Sabha.
He was appointed information and broadcasting minister in the Janata Party in 1975 under the prime ministership of Morarji Desai. He also served as the Union home minister in the BJP-led coalition government in 1998 and 1999 and deputy prime minister in 2002.
Ram Janmabhoomi Movement
In the 1990s he emerged as the face of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. The Ram Rath Yatra began from Somnath on September 25, 1990, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya's birth anniversary, and was supposed to culminate at Ayodhya on October 30, after traversing 10,000 km. The motive of the yatra was to gain support for a campaign to build a Ram temple.
Awards
He was bestowed with the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in the year 1999 by the Indian Parliamentary Group.
Books written by Lal Krishan Advani
My Country My Life (2008)
A Prisoner's Scrap-book (1978)
Nazarband Loktantra (2003)
New Approaches to Security and Development (2003)
As I See It (2011)
My Take (2021)