New Delhi: Opening a new gambit, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani on February 25 offered to talk to Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) allies on sorting out issues like the Ayodhya problem and cow protection if the Congress was ready to support the move but attacked the main Opposition party for its "silence" on the issue of a bill to ban cow slaughter.

"Since BJP has no majority and if Congress is agreeable, we will talk to our allies for finding a solution to Ayodhya issue," he told the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting in New Delhi.

Advani, who chaired the meeting in the absence of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who is away in Malaysia, said the party was for resolving the Ayodhya issue through court verdict or negotiated settlement or a legislation by Parliament, according to party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra, who briefed reporters.

Accusing the Congress of raising Ayodhya and other issues for the sake of vote bank politics, the Deputy Prime Minister said it was the Congress, which had first sought to bring an adjournment motion on Ayodhya and suspension of Question Hour for discussing it. Subsequently, when BP agreed to a discussion, Congress sought postponement till February 26, he suggested.

PTI