Suspense on Lk Advani Contesting Lok Sabha Polls

Suspense stays on whether BJP patriarch L K Advani will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls or hang up his boots. The 91-year-old, who served as home minister and deputy prime minister of the country, has won the Lok Sabha election from Gandhinagar seat six times.

Advani, credited for crafting the BJP’s rise to a pre-eminent position in the late 80s and 90s after it won just two Lok Sabha seats in 1984 Lok Sabha polls, has remained on the sidelines since he voiced his reservations on the nomination of Narendra Modi as the party’s prime ministerial candidate in 2014.

Before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP made Modi, Advani’s one-time protégé, its prime ministerial candidate, a move which apparently did not go down well with the party veteran. Advani was made a member of ‘margdarshakmandal’ after the BJP came to power in 2014, seen as an attempt to ease him out of any key decision-making process.