page_title: L. K. Advani
section_title: Prime Minister candidacy
hierarchical_section_title: L. K. Advani / Political career / Prime Minister candidacy
caption_attribution_description: English: L K Advani, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, is criss-crossing the country to canvass for votes.
context_page_description: Lal Krishna Advani is an Indian politician who served as the 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004 under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He is one of the co-founders and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Advani also served as Minister of Home Affairs in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government from 1998 to 2004. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the 10th Lok Sabha and 14th Lok Sabha. He was the National Democratic Alliance prime ministerial candidate in the 2009 general elections.
  Advani began his political career as a volunteer of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu nationalist organisation. In
  2015 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour.
context_section_description: In an interview with a news channel in December 2006, Advani stated that as the Leader of the Opposition in a parliamentary democracy, he considered himself the Prime Ministerial candidate for the general elections, ending on 16 May 2009. Some of his colleagues were not supportive of his candidacy.
  A major factor in favour of Advani was that he had always been the most powerful leader in the BJP with the exception of Vajpayee, who endorsed Advani's candidacy. On 2 May 2007, BJP President Rajnath Singh stated that: "After Atal there is only Advani. Advani is the natural choice. It is he who should be PM". On 10 December 2007, the Parliamentary Board of BJP formally announced that L. K. Advani would be its prime ministerial candidate for the general elections due in 2009.
  However, Indian National Congress and its allies won the 2009 general elections, allowing incumbent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to continue in office. Following the defeat in the elections, L. K. Advani paved the way for Sushma Swaraj to become the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
  Advani unexpectedly resigned from all his posts in the BJP on 10 June 2013 following the appointment of Narendra Modi as the head of the electoral campaign of BJP for the 2014 elections on 9 June 2013. In a short terse letter addressed to BJP President Rajnath Singh, he said, "I no longer have the feeling that this is the same idealistic party created by Dr Mookerji, Deen Dayalji, Nanaji and Vajpayeeji whose sole concern was the country, and its people. Most leaders of ours are now concerned just with their personal agendas."  Ultimately, Advani withdrew his resignation on 11 June 2013.
caption: Advani discussing black money in a rally during the election campaign of 2009.
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