Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president M Venkaiah Naidu on June 18 said it was the party's good fortune to have a great leader in Atal Behari Vajpayee, whose popularity among the people was growing even after five years in office.

"In Atalji and L K Advaniji, we see the great qualities of Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay," he told a brainstorming session of BJP at Uttan.

"The people have tested the performance of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and seen how we have made coalition governance a success and taken India on the path of speedy development," Naidu said in his address at BJP's 'Chintan Baithak'.

He exhorted BJP workers to go to all sections of the people and communicate to them the achievements and historic initiatives of NDA government.

He suggested party workers to tell the people to compare the performance of previous Congress governments and the track record of Vajpayee government. When the people see the comparison, they are bound to come to the right conclusion, he opined.

Naidu said BJP was proud of its association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), since it derived its ideology and idealism from Sangh.

"It has been my constant endeavour as BJP president to improve co-ordination between the party and the government, and interaction between the party and other Sangh-inspired nationalist organisations. We have succeeded in this task to a significant extent and our efforts would continue," he said.

PTI