The veteran  politician L .K Advani celebrates his birthday as he turns eighty five today. The warrior of many fronts for BJP has come a long way  playing an instrumental role in the growth of the party that can be compared next only to Atal Bihari Vajpayee . Be it his strong hindutva ideology , his iconic "rath yatra" , his role in demolition of Babri Masque, comment on Jinnah and so many other issues have given him the status of one of the most controversial yet influential person in the history of Indian politics.

And now the party has been going through a tough phase as there is a mutiny against the president Nitin Gadkari. Advani  is reportedly upset with the RSS for not acting against the president and skipped the core group meeting where the party formally backed the president. At Tuesday's meeting, the party also accepted a clarification of stand by S Gurumurthy a  RSS ideologue  that Mr Gadkari had done no "legal or moral" wrong and gave him a clean chit that will ensure that he honorably finishes his term as party president.

The president was an early visitor to Advani's house on the occasion of his 85th birthday. Earlier It was in the reports that Advani was in favor of sacking Gadkari immediately and then to fill the void as president himself. So the meeting has a significance and it will be interesting to see if Gadkari can win back the support of the veteran leader or not .

AW-Jyotishman