Amit Shah Wishes Advani on Entry Into 100th Year
Synopsis
Union Home Minister Amit Shah paid tribute to veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani as he completes 99 years and enters his 100th year on 8 November 2026, hailing him as the party's architect and a principled statesman whose life embodies the BJP's founding values.
Key Takeaways
Advani completes 99 years and enters his 100th year on 8 November 2026 .
Union Home Minister Amit Shah posted birthday wishes on X on behalf of the BJP's crores of workers .
Advani is a founding member of the Bharatiya Janata Party , established in 1980 .
He served as Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004 in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
Shah described Advani as 'the architect of the BJP' and a 'synonym of national service,' emphasising his journey from an ordinary family to the country's second-highest executive office.
A founding architect of modern Indian politics turns a rare corner today — Lal Krishna Advani completes 99 years and steps into his 100th year of life on Sunday, 8 November 2026, a milestone that Union Home Minister Amit Shah marked with a heartfelt tribute on behalf of the BJP's crores of workers.
Shah wrote on X, addressing Advani as 'राष्ट्रसेवा के पर्याय, भाजपा के शिल्पकार व सिद्धांतनिष्ठ राजनेता' — 'the synonym of national service, the architect of the BJP, and a principled statesman.' The message traced Advani's journey from an ordinary family to the highest rungs of Indian public life: founding member of the BJP, its national president, and finally Deputy Prime Minister of India.
From an Ordinary Family to Deputy Prime Minister
Advani's biography reads like a one-man chronicle of post-Independence right-wing politics. He was present at the creation of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980, served as its national president across multiple terms, and became Deputy Prime Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government from 2002 to 2004 — the second-highest constitutional office in the country's executive hierarchy. Few politicians of any era can claim that breadth of organisational and governmental responsibility.
Shah's tribute leaned deliberately on character over chronology. 'His life, full of struggle, sacrifice, and dedication, has shown that commitment to the motherland and to ideology is the defining identity of a BJP worker,' the Home Minister wrote, praying for Advani's good health.
The BJP's Ritual of Remembering Its Founders
Birthday tributes to Advani are a fixture in BJP political culture — but reaching the threshold of a centenary year gives this one unusual weight. The party has long used such moments to reinforce its organisational genealogy, drawing a line from the founders of 1980 to the current leadership. Shah, himself a former BJP national president and the man widely credited with the party's electoral machinery in the 2014 and 2019 general elections, is a natural custodian of that narrative.
That a figure who rose from party ground-worker to Deputy PM is now entering his hundredth year is, in its own way, a statement about the longevity of the political project Advani helped build. The BJP's founding generation is now history — and the party knows it.
Point of View
Not just electoral success, defines the party's identity. Reaching the centenary threshold elevates this annual ritual into a generational milestone, one the current leadership will leverage to anchor its own continuity to the founding era. It also quietly underscores the contrast between the party's first-generation leaders, who built the organisation from scratch, and the present dispensation that inherited — and dramatically expanded — that structure. For historians of Indian politics, Advani's longevity is itself a data point: the BJP's founding cohort is now departing slowly, and the party is consciously memorialising them while they are still alive.
NationPress
8 Nov 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is L.K. Advani in 2026?
L.K. Advani completes 99 years on 8 November 2026 and enters his 100th year of life.
What role did L.K. Advani play in the BJP?
Advani was a founding member of the BJP in 1980 , served as its national president across multiple terms, and was one of the party's most important organisational figures in its early decades.
Was L.K. Advani ever Deputy Prime Minister of India?
Yes. Advani served as Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004 in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government.
Why did Amit Shah post a birthday tribute for Advani?
Shah is Union Home Minister and a senior BJP leader. He posted the tribute on behalf of the BJP's crores of workers , describing Advani as the party's architect and a principled statesman on the occasion of Advani entering his 100th year.
When was the Bharatiya Janata Party founded?
The Bharatiya Janata Party was founded in 1980 , with Advani among its founding members and early national presidents.
