LK Advani resigns from all party posts in BJP

NEW DELHI: A day after Narendra Modi became the BJP's campaign committee chief, senior party leader L K Advani resigned from all party posts - the national executive, parliamentary board and the election committee. The senior leader sent a letter to BJP president Rajnath Singh informing him of his resignation. Advani had skipped the BJP executive meet in Goa held over the weekend. The BJP leadership on Sunday appointed Narendra Modi as the chairman of its national election committee in a significant step towards complete compliance with the pressure from the cadre to declare the Gujarat CM the saffron candidate for prime ministership. 

The decision came in the face of resistance of stalwart L K Advani and marks Modi's emergence as BJP's pre-eminent leader at the expense of the former deputy PM and many others. Besides taking the party out of the long and still-lingering shadow of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Advani and enshrining the role of cadre pressure as a major factor in Sangh Parivar's decision-making, the big boost for Modi also heralds his rise as principal challenger to the Congress - in fact the entire "secular" end of the political establishment. 

Addressing party workers after the announcement of Modi's elevation, BJP chief Rajnath Singh said that he could not have ignored the wishes of millions of party workers: an assertion that was read as a message to the old guard and Modi's peers to come to terms with the inauguration of a new phase in BJP, where the Gujarat strongman will be playing the lead role, perhaps rivalling even the RSS's infuence.