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Associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh from childhood and famous for his controversial rath yatra, the hardliner in BJP, Deputy Prime Minister and Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani is seen as a perfect foil to the moderate Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Called by his supporters as 'Sardar Patel number 2', the 75-year-old home minister was a journalist before he joined active politics.
He joined the Jan Sangh and went on to become secretary of the parliamentary group. In 1970 he was elected to the Rajya Sabha.
Born in Karachi in 1927, he was drawn into active politics in 1951 when Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerji founded the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, harbinger of the BJP.
He was president of Jan Sangh in 1973 and held this post for three consecutive terms. He pioneered the formation of BJP in 1980 and was president of the party from 1986 to 1991 and again from 1993 to 1998.
It was under his leadership in 1989, when he took out the controversial Rath Yatra for construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, that the party consolidated its strength in the Lok Sabha.
Advani held the position of information and broadcasting minister in the Janata government and has been home minister ever since the Vajpayee government took over in 1998.
Immediately after partition, he left Karachi and organised the RSS network in Rajasthan before joining the Bharatiya Jan Sangh.
Having completed his schooling at St Patrick's, Karachi, he graduated in law from Bombay University.
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