Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced that veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former deputy prime minister LK Advani will be conferred with India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna.

The Prime Minister announced the news on X (formerly Twitter), saying he was delighted to share that 96-year-old Advani would be bestowed with the honour.

“As one of the most respected politicians of our time, his contribution to India’s development was immense. His life started from grassroots work to serving the country as our deputy prime minister.” Modi said on X .

Here’s everything you need to know about Lal Krishna Advani:

Lal Krishna Advani was born on November 8, 1927 in Karachi, India to a Sindhi family. As a student at St. Patrick’s School in Karachi, his patriotic ideals inspired him to join the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1941 at the age of 14.

During the partition of India, he was forced to move to Delhi and became an RSS pracharak in Rajasthan. The soft-spoken, mild-mannered Advani became the face of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

Together with Vajpayee, he built the BJP brick by brick and orchestrated its dramatic rise in the 1990s. In the late 1980s and 1990s, he worked to build the BJP into a national political force, the results of which were reflected in the 1989 general election. The BJP rebounded from 2 seats in 1984 to 86 seats in 1989.

He is the longest-serving president of the BJP since its inception in 1980, according to the party’s website.

Advani served as a member of Parliament for 10 terms and also served as Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. He was a key figure in the development of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In the 2009 general election, Advani positioned himself as the prime ministerial candidate, although many leaders did not support the move. The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance in the 2009 polls, which affected Advani’s position and status in the party.