New Delhi, December 18 2009: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani on Friday handed over the baton of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha to Sushma Swaraj and assumed charge as the first chairman of the BJP Parliamentary Party.

The Parliamentary Party earlier unanimously amended its constitution to enable the transition.

While relinquishing his post, Advani asserted that he felt a sense of "relief" and "satisfaction", but said it was not the end of his active political career.

"If they think that I will quit activeness and politics then it is all wrong.

I became a rath yatri at 14 when I was just out of high school, and became a swayam sewak...

this rath yatra would go on for life," Advani, 82, said while addressing the parliamentary party meeting here.

Dressed in a black bandh gala suit, Advani said: "I am grateful for your (party members) affection and cooperation.

In one of the newspapers today (Friday) the headline was 'Rathyatri to get down today'.

They had further written that it would mark the end of an era in Indian politics.

It is a big statement.

But I think in my life and political career, it is a new chapter".

BJP president Rajnath Singh said: "It is a setback for the party.

The party needs the leadership of Advaniji" .

The BJP has opted for a generational change in its leadership to meet the future political challenges.

Arun Jaitley is the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

The process of top-level changes in the party, decided in consultation with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the party's ideological torchbearer, will be completed with appointment of Maharashtra BJP chief Nitin Gadkari as the next president.

Gadkari's elevation to the top organisational post in the party is expected to be announced after the party's parliamentary party meeting on Saturday.

The changes in the BJP have come at a time when the the party is beset with several challenges including its decline in Uttar Pradesh where it finished a distant fourth in the last Lok Sabha polls.

The defeat in the Lok Sabha polls also led to internal bickering and blame-game in the party.

With youth forming a large section of the country's population and Congress scion Rahul Gandhi working systematically to bring young voters closer to his party, the BJP has opted to a generational change in its leadership to meet the future political challenges.

Advani, 82, who has scripted the rise of BJP from the mid-eighties, is expected to guide the party in the role of a mentor.

He could not realize his ambition of becoming prime minister in the 2009 parliamentary polls.

Born in Karachi, Advani joined RSS in 1942 at the age of 15 and later associated with Bharatiya Jana Sangh (precursor to the BJP).

Advani was information and broadcasting minister in the Janata Party government.

He became home minister in the National Democratic Allaince government in 1998 and served as deputy prime minister from 1999 and 2004 .

He represents Gandhinagar in the Lok Sabha.

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