BJP paid for ignoring party workers: AdvaniWorkers' neglect cost party dear: Advani

Bharatiya Janata Party chief LK Advani's priorities are going to be dousing the fires at home""corruption in the party, neglect of workers and rapprochement with the fraternal organisations that had drifted away from the BJP while it was in the power.

The BJP's new enemies are the Left, the National Advisory Council  presided over by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and the "ineffectual" Prime Minister.

In his speech at the BJP national council meeting here, Advani acknowledged that the party's loss in the 2004 general elections was because it neglected its constituency. "Our consti-tuency is in three parts: the party worker, the Sangh Parivar and the Hindu polity," he said.

In a bid to make amends to the Sangh, Advani admitted that he had tried for a political solution to the Ram temple issue, and that had the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government been voted back, the temple would definitely have been constructed in Ayodhya.

Advani, the architect of the party's rise through the Ayodhya temple movement, acknowledged that the "environment" that made it potent had changed and the "Hindu anger" had given way to a patient wait for the temple "whose construction is inevitable".

Analysing the reasons for the BJP's defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, Advani said not only did the party ignore its core constituency, it was also overconfident.

"Mostly though, there was a disconnect between good governance and electoral success, we probably had to face the anger of people left out of the development process," he said.

Advani acknowledged that the neglect of the party worker was also at the root of their defeat.

"Over the past few months, I have been disturbed by innumerable complaints from workers about the behaviour and style of some party functionaries when the BJP was in power at the Centre," Advani said.

There have been charges of arrogance, aloofness, cynicism, corruption and over dependence on money power," he said.

He also took on the UPA government and the conflicts in the coalition comparing it to the stable government provided by the NDA. It also found a mention in the party's political resolution. While Advani's speech was more about going back to the Hindutva roots, the resolution concentrated on attacking the UPA regime, calling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the "missing Prime Minister".

The resolution said the Sangh's ideology was under attack and a movement would be launched by the party to defend it. The issue of tainted ministers was also brought up at the  convention.

The climax to the meet was former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's speech. He joined Advani's name to a list of revered RSS ideologues like Guru Golwalkar and Dattopant Thengdi and asked party members to turn to him for advice.

Vajpayee said despite the fact that Advani had not been party president since 1998, he still held primacy in its decision making process. "We need to go forward," he said.