Replacing Advani would be painful: Sushma Swaraj

September 11th, 2009 LONDON - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Murali Manohar Joshi, L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj and their former colleague Jaswant Singh have stopped talking to each other, according to Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora.

August 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, has joined other party colleagues at the residence of Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani to reportedly discuss a viable succession plan.

August 21st, 2009 SHIMLA - Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani Friday said coalition politics was a necessity to end the "hegemony of the Congress" in the country's political system.

August 21st, 2009 SHIMLA - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani Friday said the decision to expel party veteran Jaswant Singh for his controversial book praising Mohammed Ali Jinnah was painful but inevitable.

August 7th, 2009 NEW DELHI - BJP's Deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, today made it clear that Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani has been elected to the post for a full term, putting aside speculation over his continuance.

June 8th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday distanced itself from the comments of Sudheendra Kulkarni, a key aide of L.K. Advani, that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was responsible for the BJP's debacle in the Lok Sabha polls.

June 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday described President Pratibha Patil's address to the parliament unveiling the Congress-led government's agenda as a "bundle of promises". "Hope the manifesto for the next five years released by the president does not remain on paper.

June 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday went for a generational change as party leader L.K. Advani named 57-year-old Sushma Swaraj as his deputy in the Lok Sabha and key strategist Arun Jaitley, 56, as opposition leader in the upper house.

June 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday appointed senior leader Arun Jaitley as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and Sushma Swaraj Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. S S Ahluwalia has been appointed as deputy to Jaitley in the Rajya Sabha.

May 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Krishna Advani was unanimously re-elected as the Leader of Opposition and Sushma Swaraj as his deputy for the 15th Lok Sabha on Sunday evening. The decision was reached during a meeting of the Members of Parliament, held in the capital.

May 17th, 2009 BHOPAL - Though Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani wants to step down as leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha after the party's defeat, senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj Sunday said even to think of replacing him was painful.

April 20th, 2009 BHOPAL - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj Monday said that though the Congress government at the centre is led by an economist it will never be able to check price rise. 'How can one expect the Congress to control price rise since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, like other economists, feels that inflation was an indicator of growth rate,' Swaraj told reporters here.

April 20th, 2009 BHOPAL - Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj on Monday said that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would cross the magic figure of 272 in the general elections. "Not only would the NDA get a majority on its own, the BJP would also emerge as the single largest party," Swaraj said at a press conference here.

April 4th, 2009 RAIPUR - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj, who faced flak for her recent statement that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) might not get a clear majority in the Lok Sabha polls, Saturday said she was '101 percent' confident that the group would get a clear majority. 'I am 101 percent sure that BJP will be the single largest party and the NDA will get a clear majority,' she told reporters here.

March 1st, 2009 RANCHI - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj said here Saturday that Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, who will be contesting the Lok Sabha poll from Lucknow on a Samjawadi Party ticket, is not a serious candidate. 'Lalji Tandon (the BJP candidate from Lucknow) is a serious politician and Sanjay Dutt is a non-serious candidate,' Swaraj, who was here to launch the party's election campaign in Chhattisgarh, told reporters.