NEW DELHI: Amid strains in the NDA alliance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he was ‘successful’ in taking the coalition along in the best possible way and emphasised that it could happen because ‘democracy’ is in the roots, values and veins of the BJP.

The Prime Minister’s remarks came during an address on the occasion of the inauguration of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s new headquarters at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg here.

“In multi-party democratic set up in India, the politics of alliance is natural. Making and breaking of an alliance due to personal interest is something different. In coalition, the practice of moving together with allies is necessary.”

“The BJP under Atalji (former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) successfully did this experiment. Such an attempt was also made in 1967 by Samyukta Vidhayak Dal but it could not succeed. We succeeded because there was democracy in our roots, convention and veins. Due to this we are successful in carrying the coalition in its best possible way and we are moving ahead,” Modi said.

The Prime Minister’s remarks assume importance in the wake of recent murmurings of discontent within the BJP-led NDA. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), a key ally of the BJP, and the Shiv Sena are at loggerheads with the BJP over several issues.