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MANGALURU: With a view to countering the influence of saffron outfits, particularly the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Puttur Congress block president Hemanth Shetty will float Bharatiya Hindu Parishad in Puttur on Makara Sankramana day of January 14.

With this, Shetty hopes to remove the stigma Hindus have against Congress that it is a party appeasing only minorities.

Asserting that it is not to counter the VHP, Shetty says it is to show that Congress is all inclusive, but at the same breath he says he is floating this outfit on his personal capacity and not as an arm of Congress party.

"There is absolutely no direct relation to Congress party. But indirectly it has since all the members will be either from Congress and non-BJP parties," he said. "I have seen many Congressmen who have gone to Hindu Samajotsava organized by VHP, have been ousted from the party. This way we have lost many Hindu party workers. Their crime - wearing a Saffron shawl. Is it a crime? Why they should be labelled as BJP when they have gone to the Samajotsava as Hindus. Saffron should not be taken as a symbol of VHP or BJP. It is universal symbol of Hindus and a person with a saffron shawl should not be labelled as BJP," questions Shetty.

"I want to show that the party is all inclusive; hence this idea was mooted almost two years back. VHP organizes Hindu Samajotsava only during polls. Their programme targets all other religions and the samajotsava, as the name goes, is not for uplift of the society or Hindus. It is to provoke. BHP will have only one agenda to think about betterment of the Hindu society and no politics," he said.

Shetty has plans to open BHP units in all taluks of the district soon. "After I made this statement I have got many inquiries and it is encouraging," he says. Regarding Congress leaders opposition, he says: There is nothing to worry, since I have said that it is nothing to do with Congress.