NEW DELHI, Feb 10: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was quoted on Sunday as threatening to quit over differences with rightwing hawks in his coalition, and for the first time named two former presidents of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as his likely successors.

Mr Vajpayee was also quoted by the Press Trust of India as warning at an election rally that some people were trying to foment violence in the country but stopped short of naming them.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which is campaigning to build a temple at the site of the demolished Babri Masque, said on Sunday that it would begin the construction work on March 15.

“There is a conspiracy going on within the country to flare up violence against which we need to be vigilant,” Mr Vajpayee said. “How did terrorism originate in the country? Who is responsible for the fact that it is not yet controlled? The situation within the country is deteriorating,” he said without elaborating.

Mr Vajpayee had bluntly told VHP leaders that he would rather resign than hand over a disputed plot of land to them to build the temple in Ayodhya. VHP members claim to be separate from the BJP but their deputies sit in parliament as BJP nominees.

PTI quoted a senior priest Viswesha Teertha Swamiji, who was part of a VHP delegation that called on the prime minister recently, as saying that Mr Vajpayee had rejected their demand to hand over the land to the VHP, saying he could not go against the mandate of the ruling National Democratic Alliance.

Mr Vajpayee said he would prefer to resign than hand over the land to VHP, the PTI said.

The prime minister again repeated his readiness to quit at a function celebrating his works as poet in Delhi on Sunday. “I did not become prime minister, the job was foisted on me,” he told film star Shah Rukh Khan in a repartee. “And I am ready to go when the time comes. There are people waiting in the wings.”

Earlier, Mr Vajpayee, speaking at an election meeting in Uttar Pradesh, named Home Minister Lal Krishan Advani and Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi as BJP leaders who could take over the leadership from him.

However, the revelation came in an indirect way when he was slamming the opposition party for not having a second leader after Sonia Gandhi.

“After Sonia, the Congress has no other leader whereas the BJP has L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi,” the prime minister said in politically significant remarks.