The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ended its conclave here Friday with the 'big two' sounding a confident note -- if L.K. Advani called the party "a chosen instrument of the divine", Atal Bihari Vajpayee roundly endorsed the Hindutva line. 

Former prime minister Vajpayee gave his backing to the line being toed by the BJP under its president Advani saying there was no difference between Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) and 'Bharatiyata' (Indianness).

Addressing the concluding session of the party's three-day national executive here, he said there were "minimal differences" between him and Advani, who charted the party's return to its core ideology of Hindutva.

"There are minimal differences between me and Advani like there is between dawn and dusk," said Vajpayee, touted by the party as its tallest leader.

The note of optimism was evident in Advani's concluding remarks as well.

Putting the party's electoral setbacks behind, he said the party would bounce back stronger than before as it was the "chosen instrument of the divine".

"Even if we fail here or there, we will always bounce back."

Though the party was gearing up for elections in Bihar, Haryana and Jharkhand early next year, Advani singled out Bihar where the party had the daunting task of dislodging the "demon's rule".

Bihar is ruled by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
The BJP would take all steps to prevent a split in the anti-RJD votes, Advani said.

The BJP was fully aware of ally Janata Dal-United's (JD-U) move to form a non-RJD alliance, Advani said. JD-U's Nitish Kumar had proposed backing Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan as the chief ministerial candidate in Bihar.

"We will also look at forming a formidable alliance in Haryana," he said while expressing the hope that the BJP would retain the popular mandate in Jharkhand.

The party also took stock of the challenges ahead, on how to achieve a breakthrough in states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh and quickly recover lost ground in Uttar Pradesh.

Advani said the time was ripe for the BJP to capture power in Karnataka, where the party is the largest in the state assembly, while predicting that the Congress-Janata Dal-Secular government would not complete its full term.

The national executive, the cream of the BJP's leadership, discussed ways to expand the party's base.

The BJP president parried questions on whether it would attempt to woo the minorities, especially after taking a strong Hindu line. "We will take our achievements to the people during our party's silver jubilee celebrations."
 
He denied any differences between the BJP and its allies in the National Democratic Alliance over the party's stand on a Ram temple in Ayodhya.

--Indo-Asian News Service