DPM promises from his high rath

Advani said the unanimous view in the NDA is that an amicable solution to the Ayodhya issue is possible only through a court verdict or by agreement between the two communities. ‘‘I’m optimistic the groundwork done by many people in the last six months will lead to an agreement between the two communities after the elections,’’ he said.

Regretting that ‘‘Kerala has become a prisoner of its political ideologies. It has missed opportunities due to a political culture based on negativism,’’ he said the state lags behind other southern states despite its rich inheritance, the talent and dynamism of its people.

Charging that the Congress and the Communists are B-teams of each other at the national level, he said the two political formations led by them are nothing but a fiction of political rivalry. ‘‘The UDF and LDF do not offer a real option and only the BJP and NDA present a vibrant alternative to the state.’’

Asked why the party hasn’t been able to make inroads in Kerala, he said even in Nagpur, where the RSS is headquartered, there were no elected people’s representatives of the BJP till recently.

Advani said the BJP is a ‘‘nation-first’’ party and it considers Indianness, Hindutva and Bharatiyata as synonymous. He added that the presence of the Dewan of the Dargah in Ajmer at the inaugural function of the yatra yesterday and Christian priests meeting him in large numbers speak of the people’s changed attitude towards BJP.

Discounting fears that the current yatra may foment communal tensions, Advani said his 1990 yatra had brought to the fore the real issue of genuine and pseudo-secularism. Till then, the country had to cope with the shifting stands of Congress on various issues, which used them to promote votebank politics.