Forgotten in the party, left behind by his wife --- LK Advani is a lonely man now

He had become alone in the party before the last Lok Sabha election. He tried to make himself heard in the noise that the BJP under a new leadership found itself engulfed in but Lal Krishna Advani's days were virtually over in the party. [Advani's wife passes away]

Narendra Modi, who Advani had backed as the chief minister of Gujarat after the 2002 progroms, quietly surpassed the latter as the BJP's tallest leader and ever since the massive majority in the Lok Sabha election in 2014, it is Modi who has remained the face of the party, along with its president Amit Shah.

Even Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has remained more in the headlines as one of the BJP's main leaders but the former deputy prime minister and home minister has become a living past for the party.

On Wednesday, the 88-year-old leader lost his wife Kamla and this personal tragedy made the BJP's patriarch look even more lonely. After the exit of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from active politics, Advani had become a lonely figure in Indian politics.

Advani's position weakened in BJP after he praised RSS and the party's loss in 2009 LS polls

His relation with the RSS soured over his eulogising Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Pakistan and after the NDA suffered a terrible loss in the 2009 Lok Sabha election under his leadership, Advani's clout started to wane. When the BJP saw a revival around two-and-half years after that defeat, it came with the rise of Modi. Advani's voice remained a secondary one in every other important issue that the BJP dealt with in the Modi era.

Vajpayee is ailing. Kamla has left, BJP busy with Modi --- Advani is a lonely man now

With his long-time friend Vajpayee ailing, long-time partner Kamla no more standing by him and his own party conveniently forgetting him, Advani today is indeed alone. There was a time when Advani was the powerhouse who had helped the BJP increase its tally from two to 120 Mps in the Lok Sabha between 1984 and 1991. Those were the days when Advani's mission of mobilising the majority votes to counter the pseudo-secular politics of minority appeasement proved to be more than a hit.

In 2016, those moments look a distant memory.