The Bharatiya Janata Party was on the firing line as top Sangh Parivar leaders took stock of the party's poll debacle and the political situation in the country, at their first high-level parleys after the recent Lok Sabha polls.
Attributing the BJP's poll debacle to dilution of its 'Hindutva' ideology, the leaders of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other affiliated organisations, who have gathered here as part of the annual meet of RSS 'Prant Pracharaks' (state organisers), stressed on the need for a "deep saffron" alternative to the present dispensation, Parivar sources told PTI.
A core group of leaders, who had two sessions Friday exclusively to discuss BJP's poll debacle, are understood to have blamed BJP for "ignoring its ideology, sister organisations and cadres", the sources said.
Though RSS Chief K S Sudarshan was not reportedly very favourable towards the VHP's idea of floating a 'Hindu Front', the overwhelming mood was in favour of "resurrecting the old Jan Sangh", they said.
Sangh leaders were not averse to BJP making a "sincere homecoming" though VHP leaders expressed reservations over the main Opposition party's "credibility" among Hindus.
At its Kolkata meeting earlier this month, the General Council of VHP had proposed formation of a broad "Hindu front" for establishment of a Hindu polity in the country.
The leaders present on the occasion included among others Sudarshan, its General Secretary Mohan Bhagwat, Joint General Secretary Incharge of BJP Madan Das Devi, besides VHP leaders Ashok Singhal and Praveen Togadia and BJP General Secretary (Organisation) Sanjay Joshi.