Advani quits all party posts, says most BJP leaders focused on personal agenda

New Delhi, Jun 10 (PTI): The rift in the Bharatiya Janata Party was wide open on Monday with veteran Lal Krishna Advani stepping down from all the party posts, apparently opposing the elevation of his one-time protege Narendra Modi, Gujarat's Chief Minister, as election campaign committee chief. Advani, 85, a founder member of the BJP and considered the party patriarch after Atal Bihari Vajpayee, resigned from the BJP Parliamentary Board, National Executive and Election Committee. In his resignation letter to party President Rajnath Singh, who had announced the appointment of Modi as Chairman of the election campaign committee on Sunday at the BJP National Executive meeting in Goa, Advani rued that the BJP was no longer the "same idealistic party" created by Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Deendayal Upadhyaya, Nanaji Deshmukh and Vajpayee. "For some time I have been finding it difficult to reconcile either with the current functioning of the party, or the direction in which it is going," he said. "Most leaders of ours are now concerned just with their personal agendas," Advani said in his one-page resignation letter. Advani had skipped the three-day deliberations of the party in Goa over the weekend citing health reasons. This was the first time Advani had stayed away from the National Executive and the office bearers' meeting prior to it.