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Even Cong-BJP coalition is possible: Advani

"You will be the first to join hands with me if a situation so arises," he said pointing to the Congress benches while replying to a special discussion on the political situation in Uttar Pradesh.

Attacking the Congress for practicing 'politics of untouchability', Advani said ten years ago no party was willing to touch the BJP with even a bargepole.

"Do not have arrogance," he said to the Congress even as some members, including Congress chief whip Priya Ranjan Dashmunshi and his party colleague Sreeprakash Jaiswal, dismissed the possibility of such a coalition.

Dashmunshi said, "If the BJP can come out of the influence of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other communal forces, then we may consider."

Jaiswal said the Congress is the only party never to have had any truck with the BJP or the erstwhile Jana Sangh.

Advani retorted that the Congress had an understanding even with the Muslim League and had come out with an election manifesto in Mizoram, which was controversial.

In support, Advani recalled that in 1967, the communists had shared power in Bihar with the Jana Sangh. He said the then Jana Sangh president Deen Dayal Upadhyay, addressing a party convention in Calicut, had stated that while social untouchability was a crime it would be a bigger crime to follow political untouchability.