Saturday, January 7 2006 10:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: As part of his efforts to build bridges with the estranged Sangh Parivar outfits, new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Rajnath Singh yesterday (Jan 06, 2006) met senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders, including its Supremo Ashok Singhal, who are understood to have counselled him to stick to ideology.

Singh, who had met Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Joint General Secretary Suresh Soni yesterday, went to the VHP headquarters at R K Puram in South Delhi this evening and met Singhal and outfit Senior Vice-President Acharya Giriraj Kishore, party source said.

During the meeting, Singh is understood to have sought the leaders' blessings in his endeavour while the latter is believed to have advised him to take his team along the ideological path.

Singh's meeting with the VHP leaders assumes significance, as leaders of the two organisations have not met each other for a long time.

The VHP had not only attributed the NDA's debacle in the May 2004 Assembly polls to the abandoning of the Hindutva agenda by the BJP but also demanded both former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and L K Advani pave the way for the younger generation in the party. Both Singhal and firebrand leader Praveen Togadia boycotted a meeting of RSS national executive at Haridwar thereafter protesting the presence of Advani.

In the wake of Advani's controversial remarks on Jinnah, Togadia had even dubbed him as a 'traitor' evoking sharp reactions from the party and RSS.

VHP had reportedly been in favour of Murli Manohar Joshi as party Chief but now seems to have reconciled to Singh.