New Delhi: Kicking off a membership drive to raise funds for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Lok Sabha elections, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today (Feb 11, 2004) said BJP was now gaining acceptability because untouchability practised against it by other parties was no longer there.

"Deen Dayal Upadhyay had said untouchability is very bad in society and it was also wrong in public and political life and that the party should not fall a victim of this untouchability," he said in New Delhi at a function to mark the death anniversary of Upadhyay, founder of the erstwhile Bhartiya Jana Sangh, when the drive was launched to raise funds for the party.

Advani said untouchability against BJP was a thing of the past and the party was gaining acceptability.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee released a book on Cultural Nationalism, comprising a collection of essays by Upadhyay and suggested that the party bring out the works about his contribution to Indian politics.

Advani recalled how the late socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, who despite not approving the idea of Akhand Bharat propagated by the then Bharatiya Jana Sangh, had appreciated the nationalist feeling.

Lohia had become friendly with the Jana Sangh despite the party being considered "untouchable" in politics, he recalled.