On Board Special IAF Aircraft: The just-concluded Assembly elections in four major States could be regarded as a "watershed or trend-setting" poll having a bearing on the political climate of the country, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani said today (Dec 8, 2003).

"It is really this round of elections in four major States which could be called trend-setting as 1989 was. It has affected the entire political climate of the country," a visibly cheerful Advani told reporters accompanying him on a visit to Bhopal to attend the swearing-in of Uma Bharati as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister.

Asserting that good governance and Vajpayee Government's performance would be the party's main poll plank in the general elections next year, he said that the five-and-a-half years' rule of Vajpayee Government at the Centre has been example of what a good Government could be or should be.

Observing that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would have to respond to issues like Hindutva if raised by Opposition, Advani said that issues always depended on the situation and recalled that Hindutva meant cultural nationalism and it has been endorsed by the Supreme Court.

"There is nothing wrong about Hindutva. Congress Party did not accuse BJP of communalism in these elections," he said.

PTI