Pioneer of Hindutva politics who laid the foundation of BJP's rise

In April 2019, as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was gearing up for a fierce electoral battle to retain power at the Centre, party patriarch LK Advani in a blogpost reminded his colleagues of the ideological dictum "Nation First, Party Next, Self Last" and the triad of "Satya (truth), Rashtra Nishtha (dedication to the Nation) and Loktantra (democracy, both within and outside the party)" that, he said, had guided the struggle-filled evolution of the party

- Smriti Kak Ramachandran

The post on the eve of the BJP's foundation day was perceived to be Advani's farewell note, signalling an end of his four-decade political journey. It was also read as a sharp rebuff to the presentday leadership that had chosen to nudge him and his contemporaries to the background.

The statement stoked controversy, something that the Karachiborn Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) volunteer courted all through his political career. He had to step down as party president in 2005 after earning the wrath of the RSS for praising Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the man instrumental in carving out Pakistan. In 1996, he stepped down as lawmaker after his name appeared in the Jain Hawala Diaries; he was cleared of all charges.

While the BJP, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hailed the 2019 statement as testament of a true karyakarta and the polestar of their public life and political journey, opponents inferred that Advani had chosen the moment to convey his deep hurt at being elevated to the Margdarshak Mandal.