Indian opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani says he will resign as head of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In a statement issued Sunday in Chennai, Mr. Advani pledged to step down after the party's next plenary meeting in December.
This is the second time the former deputy prime minister announced his resignation. Mr. Advani first offered to step down in June after returning from a visit to Pakistan. His praise for the Islamic nation's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah angered staunch Hindu nationalists, who blame Mr. Jinnah for the violent partition of the subcontinent in 1947.
The rift within the party that Mr. Advani's comments provoked was temporarily patched over.
Some information for this story provided by AP and Reuters.
