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New Delhi: Reacting sharply to Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani's statement that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government cannot be "sacrificed" for a legislation on Ayodhya, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on August 9 said the construction of the Ram temple was not at "his mercy" and its agitation on the issue would intensify in the coming days.

"We don't need the sacrifice of any government to construct the temple. Let him continue to govern, we will work for the construction of the temple," VHP senior vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore told reporters.

"The temple is not at his (Advani's) mercy. It would be built through the devotion and strength of the Hindu society," Kishore said on the sidelines of a condolence meeting for the late chief of the Ram Janambhumi Nyas Mahant Paramhamsa Ramchandra Das.

Advani's statement, Kishore said, was on "expected lines but people will make him do the needful".

Asked about the shift in the stand of Advani, who had declared at the Mahant's funeral that no power on earth can stop temple construction, Kishore said sarcastically, "One is not a politician if he does not change his statement."

To a question on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s stand that a legislative option was not viable, Kishore said, "We will go to the people, who are more powerful than anybody else."

He said the VHP's apex decision-making body and high-power panel would meet in the capital on September 13 to chalk out the future course of action.

"Advani's statement will not make any difference. Our agitation will intensify," he asserted.

PTI