19 October 2004	Tuesday	04 Ramazan 1425

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NEW DELHI, Oct 18: Indian opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani was named the new president of the rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday, days after his party received a major drubbing in the Maharashtra state polls and hours after he was formally invited to visit Pakistan.

Mr Advani, who was BJP president when the Babri Masjid was demolished in December 1992, would be formally re-elected on Oct 29, replacing Mr Venkaiah Naidu, who resigned. Mr Naidu announced the decision at a news conference.

Pakistan High Commissioner Aziz Ahmed Khan personally extended an invitation from Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri to Mr Advani when he called on the former deputy prime minister regarded as an anti-Pakistani hawk, official sources said.

Mr Advani was earlier informally invited by Mr Kasuri, when the two met in New Delhi last month. Subsequently, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh endorsed the proposal for the visit, saying it would help the peace process with Pakistan.

Official sources said the issue of criminal charges against Mr Advani in a plot to assassinate Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah would not be a hindrance in his visit. Mr Advani visited Karachi as a minister in 1979 without any problem.

Mr Advani, who has accepted Mr Kasuri's invitation, is likely to visit between December and February, the official sources said.

Meanwhile, announcing his resignation, BJP President Naidu said Mr Advani would be the new party chief.

"My resignation is the result of inner discussion and consultation with my conscience," Mr Naidu said, adding that he was quitting taking responsibility for the party's debacle in the Lok Sabha and Maharashtra assembly elections.

He also announced that he would not contest any elections "for the rest of my life". Mr Naidu had stepped into the shoes of the discredited former Baharatya Janata Party president Bangaru Laxman who was filmed on camera taking bribes.

While Mr Advani is expected to end the tussle within the BJP's second rung leadership, he is evidently being positioned as an agreeable man, not to be confused with his past rabid image.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the fanatical arm of the Baharatya Janata Party, on Monday expressed disappointment over Mr Advani's appointment as the new Baharatya Janata Party President, saying that by doing so, the party has given a message that it does not want to return to Hindutva.

"By electing the leader who is responsible for betraying Hindus, the Baharatya Janata Party has given a message it doesn't want to return to Hindu agenda," its rabidly anti-Muslim secretary general Praveen Togadia told the Press Trust of India.