25 years after Babri demolition: Will Modi choose Advani as President?

Is Prime Minister Narendra Modi thinking to pay his 'gurudakshina' to his political mentor and veteran BJP leader LK Advani?

The speculation is rife among the power circles.

The landslide victory for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh Assembly election has intensified the debate surrounding the next presidential election. India will choose its next president on July 25 later this year

Whispers were already being made in the power corridor. It intensified when Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a visit to Somnath temple after the Assembly election results were announced on March 11.

On March 15, PM Modi and Advani attended a meeting of Somnath temple trust. The meeting was also attended by BJP president Amit Shah and former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel.

Some of the reports claimed that PM Modi proposed the name of Advani as the next president of India at Somnath temple meet.

Modi is believed to have said that the post of President of India would be a befitting 'gurudakshina' for Advani, whose aspiration to become PM could not come true. He was the deputy PM under Atal Bihar Vajpayee.

JOURNEY OF ADVANI

Advani was born in Karachi in 1927 in the then undivided India. After completing his college education in Sind, Advani secured his law degree from the Government Law College, Mumbai (then Bombay).

Advani joined Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh in 1942 and organised its work in Rajasthan from 1947 to 1951. He became a member of Jana Sangh, when it was founded in 1951 by Syama Prasad Mukherjee.

In 1973, Advani became the president of Jana Sangh and in 1976, a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat. Advani was imprisoned during national emergency imposed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

In the Janata Party government in 1977, Advani was the Information and Broadcasting Minister. But, the Janata experiment failed and Indira Gandhi stormed back to power in 1980. The Jana Sangh took a new identity the same year as the Bharatiya Janata Party.

RISE OF ADVANI

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the founding president of the BJP. Advani remained Rajya Sabha MP but he moved from Gujarat to Madhya Pradesh.

Under Vajpayee, the BJP followed moderate Hindutva ideology. In 1984, the BJP won only two seats prompting the party leaders to rethink its strategy. As a result Advani was made the president of the BJP.

Advani made the Ram Janmabhoomi movement of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad his party's poll cry and launched his parallel political movement for construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya.

Advani's move helped the BJP gain more than 80 seats in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP extended outside support to VP Singh government.

Advani next launched his Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya passing through several states. Narendra Modi was then in the role of Advani's 'charioteer'. Advani was arrested in Bihar by the Lalu Prasad government, which further increased the support base of the BJP.

The BJP became the principal Opposition party in the Lok Sabha when Congress formed government in 1991. Advani led his supporters next year to Ayodhya, where Mughal-era Babri mosque was demolished on December 6.

In the next general elections in 1996, Advani's aggressive campaigning propelled the BJP as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha.

But, Advani proposed Vajpayee's name as the PM candidate. Vajpayee was sworn in three times over between 1996 and 1999. Advani worked for the party, while Vajpayee led the governments at Centre.

Advani served as the Deputy PM and Home Minister under Vajpayee till 2004, when the NDA was voted out of power for next 10 years.

In 2014, BJP won majority in the Lok Sabha elections, but Advani was out of race for the PM. His one-time protg Narendra Modi was in the saddle.

Now, Advani is said to be leading the race for the next President of India. However, other names are also doing rounds.

NAJMA HEPTULLAH

Manipur Governor Najma Heptullah is another politician from the BJP fold who is being said to be in the race to Raisina Hill.

In December last year, Najma Heptullah reportedly claimed that she had expressed her wish to run for the presidency to BJP president Amit Shah seeking party's support.

Najma Heptullah is a five-time Rajya Sabha member and has run the upper house for 16 years.

Heptullah is the grand niece of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the noted scholar, famous freedom fighter and the first education minister of Independent India.

Till 2004, Najma Heptullah was a Congress member in the Rajya Sabha. She joined the BJP just ahead of 2004-parliamentary elections.

She also served as a minister in Modi government before being shifted to Manipur as Governor in July last year.

MURLI MANOHAR JOSHI

Mid-last year, Murli Manohar Joshi suddenly started lobbying for the post of President of India. Joshi met RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, with whom he reportedly discussed the matter.

Joshi followed up his meeting with Mohan Bhagwat with PM Modi over dinner at Prime Minister's residence in New Delhi. The two leaders, reportedly, discussed various things including the possibility of Joshi's candidature for presidency.

RSS ideologue Devendra Swaroop supported Joshi's candidature for the highest post in the country. Chairman of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts Ram Bahadur Rai, who is considered close to both RSS and top BJP leadership, also extended support to Murli Manohar Joshi.

Joshi has been Advani's colleague at RSS, Jana Sangh and the BJP. He was equally involved with Advani during his Ayodhya movement.

Joshi was the BJP president when Babri mosque was demolished in 1992 by kar-sevaks.

Joshi has represented Allahabad and Varanasi in the Lok Sabha. In 2014, he reluctantly vacated the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat for Modi. Joshi contested from Kanpur and secured victory with a huge margin of over 2 lakh votes.

AMITABH BACHCHAN

Last year in May, BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha created flutter by launching bollywood actor Amitabh Bhachchan's name in the race for presidency.

Shatrughan Sinha had said, "It will be a matter of pride if Amitabh Bachchan, a cultural icon, is made president of the country."

Shatrughan Sinha followed it up by saying, "Amitabh Bachchan has achieved many a milestone in cultural and social fields and if he becomes president, it will fetch a good name for the country."

However, not many political observers believe that Amitabh Bachchan is in race for the top post.

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