Saturday, October 29 2005 10:30 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In a shift of stance after L K Advani made public his plans to step down as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief, the Vishwa Hindu Parishat (VHP) yesterday (Oct 28, 2005) described the saffron party as the 'single largest Hindu force' in the country and asserted the Sangh Parivar was united except for some differences at the top.

"BJP is the single largest Hindu force in the country," VHP's Supremo Ashok Singhal, who has been highly critical of the saffron party particularly after its defeat in the Lok Sabha polls last year, told reporters here.

"I know about the people there. May be some outsiders, who joined the party as it grew, could be secular in their ideology and actions. Over 85 per cent of the party is united with the Parivar except at the top," he said in an apparent reference to Advani and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee with whom he has often been at odds.

Singhal's views assume significance as it comes close on the heels of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) national executive meeting in Chennai where the Sangh fount head drew broad guidelines for the party while deciding to distance itself from the routine day-to-day affairs.

Singhal parried questions on what BJP has done in the past several years to qualify as a 'Hindu Force' but when asked whether something would be done about the 'outsiders', he said, "it is being considered".

The VHP supremo, alongwith its firebrand leader Praveen Togadia, had earlier attributed the party's debacle to it abandoning the Hindutva agenda. Both the leaders had also 'boycotted' the RSS General Council meeting in Haridwar last year protesting Advani's presence there.