Third Front a parking lot, mirage: Venkaiah Naidu

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said that the Third Front was like a "parking lot" where parties come and go and ruled out any chance of it forming a government at the Centre.

"It was a mirage for the Third Front to form the government at the Centre as it had already been tried before and had ended in a failure. It was just like a 'parking lot' where political parties come and go," Senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said while addressing a press conference in Kolkata.

He said the parties in Third Front have no common agenda, they have no commitment.

"They will fight election against each other and later join together to block the BJP. They have no leader. Everybody wants to become prime minister," Naidu said.

"So, if it comes to power, will there be a rotational PM everyday in a week?" he wondered.

Naidu also noted that the member-parties of the Third Front were equally responsible for the sins and corruption of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance because they had been supporting parties in the alliance in both the two terms of the UPA.

"The parties making up the Third Front, whether its Left or the Samajwadi Party, they can't absolve themselves of the sins of the UPA as they all have supported UPA I and UPA II," he said.

Naidu also attacked the Aam Aadmi Party by terming it as the B-Team of the Congress.

"The AAP has been discredited after it joined hands with the Congress party against whom they had taken the vow to send them to jail for corruption," he said.

Commenting on the violence between AAP workers and BJP activists on Wednesday in New Delhi outside the saffron party headquarters after Arvind Kejriwal was detained briefly in Gujarat, Naidu said the AAP was creating tension before polls in order to be amid headlines.

Accusing the UPA of ruining and betraying the nation, Naidu said, "The Congress has betrayed and ruined the nation. They have not only betrayed the people, but also made Parliament a laughing stock. They have ruined relation with neighbours and brought down the prestige of the country in world fora."

He claimed that not the Third Front or the Congress, but only the BJP and Narendra Modi could provide an alternative to the nation.

Asked if the BJP has lost its nationalist credentials after aligning with the Lok Janashakti Party which a few years back had tried to appease a particular community by taking a jeep ride with people dressed as Osama Bin Laden, Naidu said, "It is an old issue, we need to move forward."

On the alliance between Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and Gandhian activist Anna Hazare, he said it would not have any impact nationwide and noted that the Janata Dal-United, the TMC, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the SP were all fighting for the third slot.

Asked to comment on Banerjee's claim that the TMC would emerge as the single largest party after the polls, Naidu said, "The TMC is claiming to be third largest party, the BSP is claiming to be third largest party, the SP is claiming to be third largest party, the JD-U is claiming to be third largest party. I think they all should sit together and discuss who will come third, fourth or fifth."

On Modi's rally in Kolkata where he went soft on Banerjee, Naidu said,"No one should try to misinterpret Modi's comment. We believe in the federal structure. We

believe in working together with all the states. We don't believe in threats to dismiss state governments once we come to power," he said.