Victory due to people's anger against corruption, dynastic rule: Advani

Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani on Friday congratulated Narendra Modi but apparently did not give full credit to him saying it needs to be assessed as to what contribution his leadership has made to the party’s unprecedented victory.

The BJP leader, who has not shared the best of relations with Mr. Modi in the past, called up the party’s prime ministerial candidate as soon as it became clear that the party was headed for a clear majority of its own in the Lok Sabha polls.

An emotional Mr. Advani, who visited the party headquarters in New Delhi to be part of the celebrations, told reporters that the country had never witnessed such an election in its history.

He termed the BJP’s victory as a result of mainly the people’s anger against corruption, misgovernance and dynastic rule and asked those in politics to draw lessons from the results.

Refusing to entertain any questions, he said, “We won in places where we had never won in the past. Amid all these things, people who are in power in government and those who are in politics should also collectively analyse this result and take lesson.”

Appearing reluctant to give entire credit to Mr. Modi for the party’s historic performance, Mr. Advani said, “In this victory, the contribution of Mr. Modi’s leadership, RSS and other organisations like the BJP, has to be analysed. But the result mainly is against corruption, misgovernance and dynastic rule.”

He said he is very happy with the results and feels that there should be a deeper analysis of why the party got this kind of a mandate.

“I feel in India’s history there has been no other election like this,” he said.