BJP calls Third Front a 'parking lot'

Terming the Third Front as a 'parking lot' and a 'mirage', the BJP claimed that the Lok Sabha electoral battle is basically between the NDA headed by it and Congress-led UPA. See full coverage

Terming the Third Front as a 'parking lot' and a 'mirage', the BJP on Saturday claimed that the Lok Sabha electoral battle is basically between the NDA headed by it and Congress-led UPA.

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Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said in Bangalore that some political parties want to use the (Third Front) platform as a 'parking lot'.

"It's like in a city, people park their vehicle, and after their work, they take it away. That's (Third Front) only a permanent place for parking," the former BJP President told reporters after the party opened its election office in Bangalore, marking starting of poll campaign in Karnataka.

Naidu said the elections are going to be basically between NDA and UPA. "Third Front is a mirage and it has no credibility and no acceptability".

"Third Front has no leader, no agenda, no alliance...No seat-sharing…How can anybody call it a Third Front?"

The BJP leader recalled Third Front 'experience' and 'history' and pointed to National Front and United Front governments in the past.

Naidu noted that former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda's JD(S) had formed a government in Karnataka in association with the Congress, and thereafter with the BJP, and now this party is in the Third Front. "Where is the consistency?", he asked.

The BJP leader said the Left parties are not 'reliable and credible'.

Whenever there is a 'problem', the left parties, who are always known for 'blind antipathy' towards BJP, would extend their support to the Congress, he claimed.

"Can these parties assure the people that they will not go with the Congress," Naidu asked.

To a question, he said the presence of the Third Front would benefit the BJP electorally, saying "there is no doubt about it".