Bangalore, Sept. 13: Hours before blasts ripped through Delhi, the BJP today called the Manmohan Singh government “a threat to the unity and sovereignty” of the country.

Immediately after the explosions, L.K. Advani challenged the government to dissolve Parliament and go for elections. “Let us test what people have to say. Go for immediate polls,” the BJP’s candidate for Prime Minister told a rally in Bangalore while Delhi was still counting its dead.

“Nehru, Indira Gandhi and even Narasimha Rao had left a legacy behind. But this is the most spineless government I have ever seen and the people of this country are itching to get rid of it at the earliest,” Advani said at the first of the 13 Vijay Sankalp rallies the party announced today.

BJP chief ministers and senior colleagues, in the city for the party’s national executive, were with him on the dais.

Earlier, the political resolution adopted on the second day of the BJP’s national executive meet here said: “The legacy of the ruling United Progressive Alliance is a suffering and insecure India.”

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, whom the BJP has chosen as its face against terror, rubbed the message in.

“The national security adviser has supported the Gujarat government’s proposal for an anti-terror law. The home ministry has opposed it. Those concerned about terror obviously support (the law) GUJCOC, those concerned about terrorists understandably oppose it,” Modi said.

The chief minister limited his script to terrorism and minority appeasement, forgetting his new passion for development. Modi claimed that the Congress’s drift away from its traditional centrist politics had strengthened the forces that weaken India.

His speech was in tune with the political resolution that focused on terrorism, the Students’ Islamic Movement of India and Jammu and Kashmir, in addition to the nuclear deal and the cash-for-vote scandal.

The resolution said the UPA government had repeatedly given signals to terrorists and their patrons that strong action against them could be traded for votes. It blamed the Centre’s ineptitude for the rise of separatist politics in Jammu and Kashmir and communal violence in Orissa.

The BJP leadership also picked its four election issues: inflation, terrorism, agra- rian distress and vote bank politics.

Facing a volley of questions on why the nuclear deal did not figure on the list, general secretary Ananth Kumar said it would be covered under “terrorism” or national security.

This exposes the BJP’s reluctance to go to town against the nuclear issue. The party cannot dilute its stance at this late stage but knows its hawkish position will not go down well with the urban middle class. At the same time, the BJP does not want to leave the entire field to the Congress, so it gave the issue prominence in the political resolution.

“Any future test done would seriously impact nuclear commerce with any NSG member.... This has a serious security implication. The country has lost the power to develop credible minimum nuclear deterrence,” the resolution said.

With inputs from Anil Budur Lulla