L. K. Advani | |
|---|---|
 Advani in 2022 | |
| 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India | |
| In office 29 June 2002 – 22 May 2004 | |
| Prime Minister | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Preceded by | Devi Lal |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| 21st Union Minister of Home Affairs | |
| In office 19 March 1998 – 22 May 2004 | |
| Prime Minister | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Preceded by | Indrajit Gupta |
| Succeeded by | Shivraj Patil |
| 16th Union Minister of Coal and Mines | |
| In office 1 July 2002 – 26 August 2002 | |
| Prime Minister | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Preceded by | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Succeeded by | Uma Bharati |
| 17th Union Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions | |
| In office 29 January 2003 – 21 May 2004 | |
| Prime Minister | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Preceded by | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Succeeded by | Manmohan Singh |
| 6th Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha | |
| In office May 2004 – December 2009 | |
| Prime Minister | Manmohan Singh |
| Preceded by | Sonia Gandhi |
| Succeeded by | Sushma Swaraj |
| In office 24 December 1990 – 26 July 1993 | |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | Rajiv Gandhi |
| Succeeded by | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha | |
| In office 28 February 1998 – 23 May 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Vijay Patel |
| Succeeded by | Amit Shah |
| Constituency | Gandhinagar, Gujarat |
| In office 26 November 1989 – 7 May 1996 | |
| Preceded by | Krishna Chandra Pant |
| Succeeded by | Rajesh Khanna |
| Constituency | New Delhi, Delhi |
| 2nd President of the Bharatiya Janata Party | |
| In office 2004–2005 | |
| Preceded by | Venkaiah Naidu |
| Succeeded by | Rajnath Singh |
| In office 1993–1998 | |
| Preceded by | Murli Manohar Joshi |
| Succeeded by | Kushabhau Thakre |
| In office 1986–1991 | |
| Preceded by | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Succeeded by | Murli Manohar Joshi |
| 5th Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha | |
| In office 21 January 1980 – 7 April 1980 | |
| Vice President | Mohammad Hidayatullah |
| Preceded by | Kamalapati Tripathi |
| Succeeded by | P. Shiv Shankar |
| 11th Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting | |
| In office 24 March 1977 – 28 July 1979 | |
| Prime Minister | Morarji Desai |
| Preceded by | Vidya Charan Shukla |
| Succeeded by | Purushottam Kaushik |
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha | |
| In office 3 April 1988 – 30 November 1989 | |
| Preceded by | Hans Raj Bhardwaj |
| Succeeded by | Jinendra Kumar Jain |
| Constituency | Madhya Pradesh |
| In office 3 April 1982 – 2 April 1988 | |
| Preceded by | Sawai Singh Sisodiya |
| Succeeded by | Radhakishan Malviya |
| Constituency | Madhya Pradesh |
| In office 3 April 1976 – 2 April 1982 | |
| Preceded by | Devdatt Kumar Kikabhai Patel |
| Succeeded by | Kumud Ben Joshi |
| Constituency | Gujarat |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Lal Krishna Advani 8 November 1927 Karachi, Bombay Presidency, British India (present–day Sindh, Pakistan) |
| Political party | Bharatiya Janata Party (1980–present) |
| Other political affiliations |
|
| Spouse |
Kamla Advani
(m. 1965; died 2016) |
| Children | Pratibha Advani (daughter) Jayant Advani (son) |
| Awards | Bharat Ratna Padma Vibhushan |
| Signature |  |
Lal Krishna Advani (born 8 November 1927) is an Indian politician who served as the 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004. He is one of the co-founders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu nationalist volunteer organization. He is the longest serving Minister of Home Affairs serving from 1998 to 2004. He is also the longest serving Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. He was the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP during the 2009 general election.
Advani was born in Karachi and migrated to India during the Partition of India and settled down in Bombay where he completed his college education. Advani joined the RSS in 1941 at the age of fourteen and worked as a pracharak in Rajasthan. In 1951, Advani became a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh founded by Syama Prasad Mookerjee and performed various roles including in charge of parliamentary affairs, general secretary, and president of the Delhi unit. In 1967, he was elected as the chairman of the First Delhi metropolitan council and served till 1970 while becoming a member of the RSS national executive. In 1970, Advani became a member of the Rajya Sabha for the first time and would go on to serve four terms till 1989. He became the president of Jana Sangh in 1973 and Jana Sangh merged into the Janata Party before the 1977 general election. Following the Janata party's victory in the elections, Advani became the union minister for Information and Broadcasting and leader of the house in Rajya Sabha.
In 1980, he was one of the founding members of the BJP along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and served as the president of the party three times. He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1989 where he served seven terms. In 1992, he was alleged to have been part of the Demolition of the Babri Masjid, but was acquitted by the courts due to lack of evidence. Following the same, he was one of the chief proponents of the movement to build a temple over the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya and the subsequent rise of Hindutva politics in the late 1990s. He has served as leader of opposition in both the houses. He was the minister of home affairs from 1998 to 2004 and deputy prime minister from 2002 to 2004. He served in the Indian parliament until 2019 and is credited for rise of BJP as a major political party. In 2015, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour and in 2024, he was conferred with Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.[2]