Wednesday, June 8 2005 10:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday (Jun 7, 2005) dubbed Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) as a "saffron brigade having no existence outside the State".

Launching a counter attack against the VHP whose strong criticism and "insult" prompted L K Advani to resign from BJP presidentship triggering a political storm, where the Gujarat BJP dubbing VHP a "saffron brigade having no existence outside the State".

Reacting to Advani's resignation, the state BJP president Vaju Vala yesterday said, "The saffron brigade had no existence at all outside the State".

"Apart from some places in Ahmedabad and some other parts scattered across the State no one will listen to the VHP. Moreover they have no existence outside Gujarat at all," Vala told mediapersons.

Defending Advani, one of the BJP's senior-most leader and and MP from Gandhinagar, Vala added that the VHP was being tolerated in the State only because the BJP Government was in power.

Regarding VHP firebrand leader Praveen Togadia calling Advani a "traitor" he said that this was "baseless".

"He had only referred to Mohammed Ali Jinnah's statement when he made the remarks during his visit to Pakistan and they were not his own (Advani's) views," Vala said.

The VHP has been openly agitating against Advani's remarks concerning Jinnah and the Babri Masjid and even went up to the extent of celebrating his resignation and "cleansing" a road that he had recently inaugurated in the city.

Local VHP and BJP workers also clashed yesterday over these "celebrations" following which 15 of the saffron brigade activists were arrested.

VHP international general secretary Praveen Togadia who had been the most vocal of the Sangh Parivar leaders against Advani has not spared a single occasion off late during programmes in Gujarat to criticise BJP's "diluted" Hindutva and its "uncertain" stand on the Ram temple issue at Ayodhya.

It was just two days ago in Padra town near Vadodara that he came down heavily on Advani's statements and called him a "traitor".