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Bharatiya Janata Party president M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday ruled out midterm general election and said the National Democratic Alliance government would complete its five-year term.
"We will complete our tenure. The NDA government is on a strong footing and there is no threat to its stability," he said in Hyderabad on the eve of the NDA government completing three years at the Centre.
He denied speculation that the Vajpayee government would go in for midterm polls if it won the assembly election in Gujarat. "However, we have launched an early campaign for the elections to be held two years hence," he said.
The party's goal of winning 300 seats in the next Lok Sabha polls was a big challenge, he said, adding the BJP, along with the NDA partners, would secure a two-thirds majority.
He said that the party was not looking for new allies. "We will think of new allies and alliances only at the time of the elections."
Naidu chided the opposition parties, especially the Congress, for their "irresponsible and obstructionist role" in the last three years. "I can say that we have the most irresponsible opposition that India has ever seen since Independence. While we in the NDA have a one-point programme of ensuring development and faster progress of the country, the opposition has all along been putting spokes in the functioning of our government."
He said the opposition tried to find faults with the government mainly to score brownie points. It was not only uncooperative during critical times, but also makes capital of trivial issues.
The BJP chief came down heavily on the Congress for adopting a confrontationist attitude. He said it was strange that Congress chief ministers were staging dharnas [protests].
While Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh sat on a dharna at the prime minister's residence, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi not only staged a dharna, but also courted arrest in New Delhi, he said. Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna went on a padayatra in the state. "What is happening to the Congress? It is the oldest party that ruled at the Centre and in the states for decades," Naidu remarked.
He said the Congress accused the BJP of not respecting verdicts of the court, but the Karnataka chief minister had refused to accept the Supreme Court's order on the release of Cauvery waters.
"We had said that the BJP is a party with a difference. Now I realise that we have an opposition with a difference," he said.
Naidu said the NDA government had not faced a single scam so far, though the opposition was making wild charges, demanding the resignation of the prime minister, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani and Union ministers Anant Kumar and Pramod Mahajan.
He said the opposition parties stalled proceedings in Parliament when the government tried to debate these charges. But when the government released the lists of petrol pumps and land allotments, the opposition was dumbfounded.
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