Veteran BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani, 96, was admitted to Apollo Hospital on Wednesday evening. Hospital officials said he is stable and under observation. The BJP co-founder has been admitted under senior consultant neurologist Dr Vinit Suri. On Wednesday last week, he was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi. At the time, an AIIMS spokesperson had shared a similar update, saying that the 96-year-old is “stable and under observation”. He was discharged after a night-long stay at the hospital, PTI reported. Advani served as the Minister of Home Affairs from 1998 to 2004, and as deputy prime minister from 2002 to 2004. He was BJP’s prime ministerial candidate during the 2009 general election. On March 31 this year, President Droupadi Murmu conferred Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian honour, on Advani at his residence in Delhi. In its press release, the Rashtrapati Bhavan had said, "Advani, a doyen of Indian politics, has served the nation with unwavering dedication and distinction for over seven decades." "With his vision of cultural nationalism, he toiled hard for decades, across the length and breadth of the country, and brought about a transformation in the socio-political landscape," it added. Advani was born in Karachi on November 8, 1927. He joined the RSS in 1942 and migrated to India in 1947 during the Partition. He served as an Assistant Editor in 1960 for the Organiser, and quit the role in 1967 to move to full-time politics. Advani was instrumental in BJP's turn towards supporting the VHP’s Ram Temple demand once he took over as party president in 1986. He served as the BJP's president from 1986 to 1990, and then from 1993 to 1998 and 2004 to 2005. In 2013, Advani resigned from all party posts after then-Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was elevated to head the BJP election campaign for 2014.
