Advani quits BJP posts

LK Advani, senior BJP leader, has quit from all his party posts indicating a rift in the BJP. Advani is apparently miffed with the elevation of his one-time protege Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as election campaign committee chief. 85-year-old Advani, who is one of the founding members of the BJP and considered the party patriarch after Atal Bihari Vajpayee, resigned from all main fora of the party -- Parliamentary Board, National Executive and Election Committee. In his resignation letter to party president Rajnath Singh, who announced the appointment of Mr. Modi as Chairman of the election campaign committee on Sunday in the BJP National Executive, he rued that the BJP was no longer the "same idealistic party" created by Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Deendayal Upadhyaya, Nanaji Deshmukh and Vajpayee. "For some time I have been finding it difficult to reconcile either with the current functioning of the party, or the direction in which it is going," he said. "Most leaders of ours are now concerned just with their personal agendas," Mr. Advani said in his one-page resignation. Mr. Advani had skipped the three-day deliberations of the party in Goa over the weekend citing health reasons. This was the first time Mr. Advani had stayed away from the National Executive and the office bearers' meeting prior to it.