Wednesday, April 6 2005 10:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) makes a serious revival bid after its debacle in Lok Sabha polls, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee yesterday (Apr 5, 2005) asked them not to get "disheartened" by electoral setbacks but work to expand party's "influence and strength".

In his 40-minute valedictory address to the special session of the party's National Executive meet in New Delhi, Vajpayee's refrain was to shake off despondency as the organisation has witnessed several "ups and downs" in its 25-year history and treated both victory and defeat alike.

He said the BJP has more relevance today as the country faced more challenges from within than from outside, party spokesperson Sushma Swaraj told reporters in Delhi.

Expressing concern over the naxalite menace, Vajpayee said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government was "neither comprehending its magnitude nor dealing with it properly. Therefore, in future, the importance of that political party in politics will grow which will be firm in dealing with these internal threats".

Like party president L K Advani, Vajpayee too did not refer to "Hindutva" or issues like discipline in his address.

Party sources quoted Vajpayee as telling the members that what was important was how the party responded to the call of the nation" and in this context, he recalled how BJP's predecessor Bharatiya Jana Sangh merged with the Janata Party in 1977 in the "national interest and for protection of democracy".