Bharatiya Janata Party President Lal Kishenchand Advani on Wednesday sought to win back the party's core 'Hindutva' constituency, reaffirming commitment to the 'reconstruction' of the Ram temple at Ayodhya.
In his presidential address to the special silver jubilee session of BJP's National Council in New Delhi, he also defended BJP's ties with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Advani said 'our party's commitment to reconstruction of the Ram temple at the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya remains total, unshakeable and irreversible'.
"We continue to believe that a negotiated settlement through dialogue between representatives of the Hindu and Muslim communities in an atmosphere of mutual trust, goodwill and accommodation is the most desirable route to solve this long-pending issue," he said.
He expressed happiness over 'consensus' among the National Democratic Alliance partners over this approach.
Defending the party's ties with the RSS, Advani said, 'our inflexible stand on our association with the RSS gave us a distinct ideological identity, about which we have never been apologetic, nor will we ever be'.
Claiming that a much larger constituency of patriotic Indians, outside the formal reach of the 'RSS parivar', supported the BJP, he said, "We need to incessantly and persistently strengthen our bonds with organisations and individuals in this larger fraternity through mutual dialogue."
According to him, taking the party's 'core constituency for granted' was one of the important reasons for the debacle of the party in the Lok Sabha elections.
Advani referred to a Congress Working Committee Resolution of 1999, which read 'Hinduism is the most effective guarantor of secularism', and said the United Progressive Alliance government's 'desaffronisation and detoxification campaign, under the malignant influence of the Communists, does not square with this resolution'.
Laying emphasis on 'consolidation and expansion' of the party in the coming days, he said the biggest challenge would be its 'speedy revival' in Uttar Pradesh.
Advani added that the party took its 'core constituency' for granted and this had a definite effect on the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections.
BJP will also demand an all-party meeting to discuss the issue of Bangladeshi infiltration, he said.
The BJP chief charged the Congress with 'abjuring all faith in democracy, which categorically rejects privileges by birth, and blatantly falling back to feudal and monarchic ways'.
"How can a party that does not follow this basic democratic tenet within its own organisation be expected to protect and promote democracy in the country?" he asked.
Advani, without naming Congress President Sonia Gandhi, said 'never in the history of independent India, have we seen such deliberate devaluation of the office of the prime minister as in the present dispensation'.
Making a veiled reference to Sonia Gandhi, he said she was a 'super prime minister without any accountability to Parliament'.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and NDA convenor George Fernandes were among those to attend the meeting.
