Regional parties cannot provide alternative government: Venkaiah Naidu

Bhubaneswar: Claiming that regional parties cannot provide an alternative at the Centre and the Third Front is only a mirage, BJP on Monday asserted that the party along with its allies would win about 300 seats in the Lok Sabha to form a decisive government.

"Regional parties can never be an alternative at the Centre. Experience shows such experiments have failed in the past and people have realised that Third Front is only a mirage," veteran BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said here.

Stating that the country needs a strong national party like BJP to provide a stable and decisive government, Naidu said even attempts towards a Fourth Front - a Federal Front - would never succeed as there were at least seven aspirants for the post of prime minister.

Even a name from Odisha is also proposed for the top post, the former BJP President said apparently referring to Odisha Chief Minister and BJD President Naveen Patnaik.

Maintaining that none of these fronts or groups would be able to provide a viable alternative, Naidu said the situation demanded a stable and capable government and people have realised that BJP could be the only alternative.

Claiming a clear wave in favour of the BJP across the country, he said the party's popularity had been surging as people knew that its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's programmes were dynamic, decisive and development oriented.

Predicting that the BJP and its allies would win around 300 seats in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls, Naidu said the saffron party alone would secure over 250 seats to put an end to the Congress era and the Nehru-Gandhi family dynastic rule.

"While the BJP will win the highest number of Lok Sabha seats, the Congress will get the lowest," he said stating that the allies of the Congress were deserting it.

Claiming that alliance with parties like TDP has added strength to BJP-led NDA, he ruled out any post-poll alliance as the party and its allies were in a comfortable position to form government at the Centre.

During the ten-year UPA rule, the country suffered from policy paralysis, growing unemployment, dismal economic growth, soaring crimes against women, while agriculture sector was in doldrums amidst suicide by distressed farmers in different parts, he said.

Naidu said UPA's foreign policy suffered from inherent weaknesses because of which India's relations with neighbouring countries witnessed a slide over the years.

"While China is staking claim over territories in Arunachal Pradesh, Pakistan has been actively aiding and abetting terrorism," he said adding that there were problems with Bangladesh and Myanmar also.

Claming that people are fed up with the performance of Congress due to sky-rocketing prices of all commodities, large-scale corruption in all spheres and sluggish industrial activities, the BJP stalwart said Narendra Modi had emerged as a ray of hope for the country.