Third Front talk will only help Narendra Modi's bid for PM: Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI: BJP today dismissed the speculation on the emergence of a Third Front, saying such a configuration would neither have "ideological coherence" nor a large political nucleus which could provide stability to it.

Any talk on the Third Front would only help the formation of a Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre, the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, said here.

"The Third Front has no ideological coherence. It has no nucleus with a large political presence which can provide stability.

"The more noise we hear about the Third Front, the greater will be the desire to elect the Modi-led NDA, which has ability of its own to form the government," Jaitley said.

Although disillusionment with the Congress-led UPA was clearly visible, the Third Front represents the very opposite of coherence, decisiveness and the political stability which is required to pull the economy out of the present mess, he added.

Jaitley also talked about the contradictions within the Third Front ---- between Trinamool Congress and the Left, SP and BSP, AIADMK and DMK and JD(U) and RJD.

"They constitute a political paradox which a Third Front can never resolve," he said.

The prime movers behind the idea of Third Front are Janata Dal (United) and the SP, both of which are facing a serious identity crisis, Jaitley added.

Talking about JD(U), he said that after breaking its long -standing alliance with BJP, the party faces the possibility of being squeezed out in Lok Sabha polls.

Referring to SP, he said that the party responsible for keeping both the UPA-I and UPA-II governments in power would not be able to project a credible political personality on the plank of non-Congressism.

"Both JD(U) and the SP are potential losers in their areas of influence. Losers don't become winners merely because they attempt to form a 'losers' front'.

"The essential requisite for a Third Front is (such a formation's) equal distance from both Congress and BJP. How can JD(U) and SP claim that? JD(U) lost out to RJD in a bid to befriend Congress while SP kept the UPA government in power for 10 years," Jaitley said.