Indore: Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani on April 5 admitted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was still to inspire confidence in the people that it was different from other parties in respect of idealism and values and to prove that it could overcome the "weaknesses, which the power politics breeds".

"BJP is still to inspire confidence in the people that even in respect of idealism and values, our activists are absolutely different from their counterparts in other parties. We have still to prove that we have the ability to overcome the weaknesses which power politics breeds," he said addressing the party's national executive in Indore.

Posing the question as to why should something that has been the party's strength and sustaining force get diluted when in power, he said there was need to prove wrong those who think that idealism and power politics could not go together.

Striking an introspective note, he cautioned that the BJP ran the risk of being rejected by the people "in the same way that they rejected the Congress from 1967 onwards", if its "distinctive strength" of culture of selflessness and tradition of idealism got diluted when the party was in power.

"Without this unique aspect of 'a party with a difference', the BJP will be seen as a party like any other," he said, noting that though ideology was important, ordinary workers do not judge a political worker by his ideology, but by his conduct in public life.

PTI