Monday, April 4 2005 20:22 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: On the eve of his party's silver jubilee celebrations, BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) president L K Advani today (Apr 4, 2005) said the construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya remained an "unfulfilled desire" for him and said it would have been built had the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) returned to power.

He also gave a clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the post-Godhra violence in the State saying the accusations against him were "incorrect".

"There remains an unfulfilled desire in my heart that the Ram temple could not be built and it was due to this urge that in 2003, in the last six months of the NDA Government that serious efforts were made in this direction," he said in interviews to different television channels.

He said the efforts would have borne fruit had the NDA got a renewed mandate.

"I am confident that the ground work we had done during six months preceding the elections in respect of Ram temple, in respect of Ayodhya - if we had been able to get renewed mandate in Lok Sabha, it would have been a few more months that there would have been agreement between Hindus and Muslims in respect of constructing a Ram temple," Advani said.

Acknowledging that the Ram Janambhoomi movement has been to a "great advantage" of BJP, he said "and I believe that our failure was not so much not being able to reconstruct the temple as much as the failure to get a renewed mandate".

He, however, asserted that the party's commitment to building a Ram temple is "irreversible".