LK Advani – The Sad End?

After Atal Behari Vajpayee, LK Advani presumed he was next in line, and was perennially the BJP’s Prime Minister-in-the-waiting. His ambition was to be the PM at least once. And he felt he had a rightful claim to it.

LK Advani took one of his most difficult political decisions, forcing his party-men to take sides. LK Advani’s chequered political legacy had seen many high and lows. This is the third time he quit to return on the frailest of excuses. No one is impressed, not even his staunch supporters. He time and again, has proved that he is bereft of new ideas and has not kept abreast with time and emerging India. The Iron Man was sadly found to be with iron deficiency!

This is the third time that LK Advani has withdrawn his resignation. He resigned as party President in 2005 following the furore over his thoughtless Jinnah remarks and then again in 2009 as leader of the opposition after the BJP’s debacle in the Lok Sabha elections, only to resume responsibility again. But this retreat stood out because of its swiftness and because Advani had raised the ante really high, targeting the entire party leadership which eventually proved very costly to the party.

Importantly, even before the curtains came down on the resignation drama, the BJP appeared not too distressed by Advani’s angry resignation letter, where he had criticized the party leadership for pursuing their personal agendas. Rajnath’s stand on Modi left no option for the patriarch. As Modi stayed, Advani backed off after RSS’s Mohan Bhagwat requested Advani to withdraw his resignation, and Advani grabbed the lifeline and meekly agreed to end the drama by withdrawing his resignation, thereby denting his own image and credibility further.

Is this the sad end for LK Advani? But in politics, one can never say for sure. He may even spring another surprise? One thing for sure, the image of BJP and LK Advani has taken a beating; the party with a difference, is no different than other political parties in India with internal rifts and groups pushing for their men and ideas.