Advani, Lal Krishna

Advani, Lal Krishna,

1927–, Indian political leader, b. Karachi, British India (now in Pakistan). A lawyer and a member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata partyBharatiya Janata party
[Hindi,=Indian People's party] (BJP), Indian political party that espouses Hindu nationalism. The BJP draws its Hindu nationalist creed from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS; National Self-Service Organization), a group founded in 1925 in opposition to
..... Click the link for more information.  (BJP), he was the party's president several times (1986–90, 1992–98, 2004–5). Known as a hardliner, he began a campaign in 1990 to build a Hindu temple on the site of a 16th-century mosque in AyodhyaAyodhya
or Ajodhya
, town, Uttar Pradesh state, N India, on the Ghaghara River. It forms a municipal corporation with Faizabad. Ayodhya was the capital of the kingdom of Kosala (7th cent. B.C.).
..... Click the link for more information. , which led (1992) to the mosque's destruction by Hindu militants and to riots that killed more than a thousand. Under Prime Minister Atal Behari VajpayeeVajpayee, Atal Bihari
, 1926–2018, Indian politician, prime minister of India (1996, 1998–2004). He began his career as a journalist, entering politics as an unsuccessful parliamentary candidate in 1950.
..... Click the link for more information. , Advani served as home affairs minister (1998–2004) and deputy prime minister (2000–2004). After the party's defeat by the Congress party in 2004, he became opposition leader. Advani was the BJP's candidate for prime minister in 2009, but the BJP lost to a Congress-led coalition; later that year Sushma Swaraj succeeded him as opposition leader. In 2017 he was ordered to stand trial for his alleged role in the Ayodhya mosque razing.