Onlykashmir.in News Desk
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday visited senior BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani at his residence in New Delhi, a courtesy call that carried added significance because it came on the day Mr Modi completed 25 continuous years as head of a government.
October 7, 2026 marks a quarter century since Mr Modi first took the oath as Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2001. He went on to lead the state for more than a decade before taking over as Prime Minister of the Republic of India in 2014, a position he has held since. The span makes his one of the longest unbroken stretches in executive office in the history of Indian democracy, across the state and national levels.
The meeting with Mr Advani is read in political circles as a gesture of respect towards a leader who shaped the party’s growth over decades. Mr Advani is widely regarded as one of the principal architects of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s rise from a small formation to the country’s dominant political force. His rath yatras and organisational work in the 1980s and 1990s transformed the party’s reach, and he served as Deputy Prime Minister and Union Home Minister in the Vajpayee government. He was conferred the Bharat Ratna in 2024.
Mr Modi has often spoken of Mr Advani as a mentor and has, on several earlier occasions, visited him at his residence on birthdays and milestones. The visit on this particular day underlines the continuity of that relationship at a moment when the Prime Minister is being congratulated by colleagues and well wishers across the country.
The milestone has prompted wide reflection on the Prime Minister’s long tenure. Supporters point to welfare delivery, infrastructure expansion, the growth of digital public services and India’s growing diplomatic profile as hallmarks of the period. Critics, for their part, raise questions on issues such as institutional autonomy, economic distribution and the state of political dissent. Both lines of argument will continue to shape the debate as the country assesses what two and a half decades of one leader’s executive experience have meant.
For the BJP, the day has symbolic value. It brings together the founding generation represented by Mr Advani and the leader who carried the party to national governance for more than a decade. The image of the Prime Minister calling on the veteran leader on such an occasion is likely to be cited as a reminder of the party’s continuity and the personal bonds that have sustained it through changing political fortunes.
