Putting all speculation to rest BJP stalwart L K Advani stepped down as leader of opposition giving way to Sushma Swaraj to become the first female politician to be appointed as the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha.
The 82-year-old veteran leader is elected Chairman of BJP parliamentary party. “This is a new chapter in my life,” said Advani, the author of “My Country My Life”.
"If they think that I will quit activeness and politics, then it is all wrong. I think that I became a rath yatri at 14 when I was just out of high school and became a Swayam Sewak.... This rath yatra would go on for life," Advani said.
In another top level changes in the party, Rajnath Singh quit as the party president. Maharashtra BJP chief Nitin Gadkari will replace him as the next president. The development in the party took place in consultation with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the party's ideological mentor.
Gadkari's elevation to the top organisational post in the party is expected to be announced after the party's parliamentary party meeting on Saturday.
The replacement of the top leaders has come at a time when the party is itself divided facing internal bickering and blame-game since BJP’s debacle in the parliamentary election. The generational change in the leadership also seemed inevitable to meet the future political challenges and to attract the young voters closer to BJP against the Congress advocating youth leadership.
Advani who scripted the rise of BJP from the mid-eighties could not fulfill his dream of becoming the prime minister in the 2009 parliamentary polls. Advani joined RSS in 1942 at the mere age of 15 and later associated with Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Advani was information and broadcasting minister in the Janata Party government. He became home minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in 1998 and served as deputy prime minister from 1999 and 2004. The BJP-led NDA remained in power at the Centre from 1998 to 2004.
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