Does Modi want LK Advani to be next President of India?

New Delhi: 89-year-old senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani may be in contention to become the next President of India.

According to reports, it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself who proposed Advani’s name for the presidency, during a party meeting in Gujarat’s Somnath.

Reportedly, at the meeting, attended by Advani himself, Modi said the President’s post would be a ‘guru dakshina’ for the 89-year-old leader.

Amit Shah and Keshubhai Patel were also present at the meeting, said reports.

The Presidential election is due for July 2017, after the UPA-supported candidate Pranab Mukherjee became the head of state in July 2012. His term ends on July 25, 2017.

After winning major elections in UP and Uttarakhand, as well as forming governments in Goa and Manipur, BJP is set to gain a majority in the Upper House, which will enable it to appoint a President of its choice.

Advani started his political career as a volunteer for the RSS and is one of the main accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case. Between 1998-2004, he served as the country’s Home Minister. During Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s regime, he was the Deputy PM.

There have been reports over the last few years of a rift between Advani and the new BJP guard. Advani was dropped from the BJP Parliamentary Board and included in the Marg Darshak Mandal of the BJP along with Murli Manohar Joshi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, after Modi came to power in 2014.

But the man who could never become the PM could now end up as the President.