General elections 2014: Regional parties will lose identity if come close to Congress, says BJP

NEW DELHI: BJP today said regional parties will lose their political identity if they backed Congress to form the government and asked them to be a part of NDA.

"All non-Congress regional parties will have to align with the non-Congress combination represented by the NDA. The Third Front and the Left Front can never suit those occupying the non-Congress space in their states. In order to form a government, they will lose their political identity by being close to Congress," BJP leader Arun Jaitley said in an article.

He also said the Third Front and the Left Front can "never suit" those occupying the non-Congress space.

He said it was important for them in the larger interest of their politics to be a part of the NDA and TDP's return to the NDA has reinforced this point.

He said that BJP-TDP tie-up represents a formidable challenge to opponents in Seemandhra and Telangana.

Jaitley said this election is becoming increasingly a "one horse race" and exuded confidence that the NDA is now capable of achieveing the half mark by itself.

On the FIR against Amit Shah, he said it has come as a surprise as it is only an appeal to the voters to avenge the injustice done.

"The first information report lodged against Amit Shah comes as a surprise to any student of law. An appeal to the voters to take revenge against the incumbent government or the opponent because of its non-performance by voting against them is routinely done.

"The context in which the speech has been delivered has to be analysed. In this speech, Amit Shah makes an appeal to the electorate to vote against someone and avenge the injustice. I wonder which provision of law can such a speech violates since it is only an appeal to vote," Jaitley said.