Bharatiya Janata Party veteran L K Advani, who turned 90 on Wednesday, celebrated his birthday with visually challenged children, with top ministers and politicians cutting across party lines greeting him at his residence.
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and former prime minister Manmohan Singh also personally greeted Advani and presented him with a bouquet of flowers, while former President Pranab Mukherjee called him up and gave best wishes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished Advani on Twitter saying, “Birthday greetings to respected Advani ji. I pray that he is blessed with good health and a long life.”
“Advani ji is a political stalwart, a leader who has distinguished himself through hard work and dedication towards our nation,” he said in another early morning tweet.
Modi also sent a personal letter to Advani wishing him on the day.
Advani started his day with customary prayers with his family in the morning.
He invited visually-impaired children as his “special guests” to celebrate his birthday with at his residence and served and shared breakfast with them.
The BJP veteran personally fed delicacies to the children and ate with them in the foreyard of his residence.
The 90 kids from the Janta Adarsh Blind School were later presented with schoolbags by the BJP veteran.
While Home Minister Rajnath Singh was the first one to arrive at Advani’s Prithviraj Road residence and present him with a shawl, many other union ministers visited him during the day and greeted the former deputy prime minister.
Among the host of Union ministers who personally wished the BJP veteran were Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar and ministers of state Jayant Sinha, Hardeep Puri and Vijay Goel.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi also wished Advani on Twitter saying, “Happy Birthday, Advani ji. Have a lovely day.”
The governors and chief ministers of various states also greeted Advani over phone.
It was an open house from 10:30 am onwards when the veteran leader met a large number of people.
Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo
A number of leaders from other parties like Kamal Nath, Karan Singh, Sharad Yadav, Jay Panda, Rajiv Shukla and Amar Singh visited and greeted the veteran leader.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia were also among those who personally wished Advani at his residence.
A large number of BJP leaders also visited the party veteran who steered it when its numbers in the Lok Sabha was just two.
Advani was born in Karachi this day in 1927.
