India's nationalist opposition "Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)" named a low profile, regional politician as its new president on Saturday, hoping he will be able to steer the party out of a series of scandals and setbacks. Rajnath Singh, a former federal minister and provincial chief minister, would lead the BJP until Feb. 2007, outgoing president Lal Krishna Advani told a news conference at the end of the party's 25th anniversary celebrations in Mumbai. "The party will make good progress under the leadership of the popular politician that Rajnath Singh is," Advani said. "We have passed through a bad patch and am sure under Rajnath Singh we are heading for a very good patch in 2006. "I am not in the least unnerved by the ups and downs in the life of a party," Advani said. "Our recent problems are nothing compared to what we faced in the past." New president Rajnath Singh said former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Advani would continue to inspire and motivate the BJP. "I accept this responsibility as a test of my abilities," 54-year-old Singh said. "We will move forward under the same ideology with which we started our political journey".
