Congress will be reduced to 'third force' after polls: Jaitley

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said that after the Lok Sabha polls, Congress will be reduced to a "third force" owing to the infightings within the UPA.

"After the General Elections, you will see that the Congress will be reduced to a third force. There is a civil war going on within the UPA, between the UPA and the Left, between the UPA and the SP, the NCP and the RJD," Jaitley told reporters.

"Pranab Mukherjee is issuing statement that the RJD will not be a part of the next government. In fact, after the General Elections, Congress will be reduced to third force," the BJP leader asserted.

Terming the poll campaigning by Congress as "a family melodrama", Jaitley said, "Congress is trivialising the election campaign. It is not addressing the issues of security and economy." "Today almost 170 districts in the country are affected by the Naxal menace. And even a train has been hijacked. This shows the bad picture of the internal security in the country," he said.

Lashing out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Jaitley said, "The Congress has to answer on the weak leadership issue and the economic crisis that has gripped the country. And now it seems that the PM has run out of ideas how to deal with job losses."

First Published: Apr 22, 2009 17:39 IST