Hyderabad: Scoffing critics of his "Bharat Uday" yatra that it was creating communal tension, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today (Mar 17, 2004) said he was surprised by it as a large number of Hindus, Muslims and Christians were flocking in large numbers to see the yatra.

"I am surprised that among the criticisms levelled was that this yatra is going to create communal tension in the country. I can say that one of the most gratifying features of the response to this yatra in 2004 has been that all along the route I have seen people coming flocking to the yatra in large numbers. Hindus, Muslims and Christians, all of them, without any distinction," he said in Hyderabad.

Attacking Congress of being opportunistic and seeking support of groups that take to violence for the sake of votes he said, "Congress approach to groups, which take to violence is often distorted by political and electoral dividends, this is unfortunate and I had seen it happen in the Northeast."

Advani, who embarked on the eighth day of his "Bharat Uday" yatra from Hyderabad, said he had noticed a "perceptible change at least in a large section of Muslims and feel that for many years the opponents of BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) had created an image about BJP in their minds, which is totally different from the reality that they have seen".