Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M Karunanidhi on Monday declared in Chennai that the party would quit the National Democratic Alliance at the Centre if the Bharatiya Janata Party, leader of the coalition, is firm on following the Hindutva policy.

When asked about United Janata Dal president Sharad Yadav's declaration, to part with the BJP if Hindutva became the issue, he said, "Our stand in this regard is no different."

Karunandhi said he had made it clear, when the NDA was being formed, to the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that the DMK would never accept the Hindutva ideology.

The BJP had won in Gujarat only because Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani had asserted that India would never be a 'Hindu rashtra', he said.

He said that both leaders had declared during the Gujarat poll campaign that the BJP did not support Hindutva.

Karunanidhi also stressed that the DMK did not have any electoral alliance with the BJP at the state-level in Tamil Nadu. "As such, the question of the DMK supporting the BJP in the upcoming assembly by-elections in Sattankulam does not arise," he said.

Karunanidhi pointed out that the DMK and the BJP were on different wickets in the recent assembly by-elections in Vaniyambadi and Saidapet.