While hailing the National Agenda, the carefully-worded political resolution adopted by the BJP National Executive today stated that the mandate of the general elections "vindicates our stand on national issues and gives us the responsibility of setting right the grievous wrongs of the past".

The BJP has traditionally used the terms "national issues" and "wrongs of the past" to mean Ayodhya, Article 370 and uniform civil code. By claiming vindication, the party is signalling to its cadres that it stands by these issues.

In fact, the two-day National Executive which ended this evening reflected the dilemma of the party: How to keep up the morale of cadres (for whom Hindutva is a fundamental commitment) and expand the party'ssupport base while at the same time running a coalition government with allies who are opposed to Hindutva.

The meeting saw a strange reversal of roles between the BJP president and the Prime Minister. Yesterday, the thrust of Advani's speech was that the interests of the coalition government should be given primacy over those of the party. Today, Prime Minister Vajpayee suggested that the party had a pivotal role and was as important as the government. "The party has to run the government," he said.

Interestingly, the political resolution made no mention of Advani's proposal for a new BJP with a new approach to contentious issues. This could either be because the idea did not find favour, or because the leadership felt that it should be debated and decided by the new BJP president and his team which is to take over next month.

Senior leaders said informally later that the party did not intend to "deviate even one inch" from these controversial issues. However, the government's National Agenda would befaithfully followed due to the compulsions of coalition politics, they added.

On alliances, Vajpayee said that the party's political approach in those regions where allies have a base should be "constructive". The strategy appears to be that the BJP should be careful not to become a threat to allies and at the same time take advantage of their support in order to grow itself.

Vajpayee's speech hinted that the BJP should gear up for single-party rule. He said: "We are in an era of coalition governments. But this situation may not be perpetual. There is a possibility of a single party emerging as an alternative at the national level though regional parties have acquired a pivotal role. But the strength of single parties may also increase in future."

It was decided to hold training camps in all states to further expand the party's social and political base because, BJP general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu told journalists, "the party has to prepare for direct confrontation in future".

Vajpayee warned theparty not to underestimate its opponents who, he said, might still try to cobble together an alliance and try to confuse the people. The party should make efforts to increase its support base among SC/STs and minorities, he said. Vajpayee also stated that he was committed to maintaining the present level of reservations.

He appealed to party workers to be a link between the government and the people and properly convey its achievements. From this, it appears that the BJP hopes to make a success of governance in order to be able to come to power on its own later.

The Prime Minister also tried to convey to party workers that they should limit their expectations, explaining that a coalition government had its own in-built constraints. "We have not been able to accommodate some of our best workers in the government because we have to accommodate allies," he said.

For the rest, the political resolution stated that the immediate tasks before the government was to put on course India's economy. Areas likeagriculture, physical infrastructure, the social sector and internal security also called for urgent attention.

Hailing the formation of a BJP-led coalition government, the resolution said that the anti-BJPism propagated by the United Front had collapsed while the Congress had hit an all-time low.