Third front, a tried and failed experiment, mirage: Venkaiah

Chennai, Mar 16: Dubbing the

at the national level as a "mirage",

on Sunday said it was a "tried" and "failed" experiment and regional parties can never form a strong Union Government.

"They talk about the third front. But, the third front is a tried and failed experiment. It is a mirage. There were third fronts earlier. I K Gujral was a Prime Minister, Chandrasekar was a Prime Minister. They could not survive for long, why? Because they did not have the command," senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said.

Giving a speech at an event organised by ‘Friends of BJP’ on ‘Modi for PM’ here, he maintained that the third front had never formed a stable government in the past and claimed the present attempt to bring together parties would not succeed.

"Look which are the parties they are counting for third front. They are counting (arch rivals) DMK and AIADMK together. How can they go together?" he asked.

Referring to SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, believed to be aspiring for the Prime Minister’s post, Naidu recalled his earlier decision along with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to renominate former President Abdul Kalam for a second term in the Presidential election only to retract and extend support to UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee.

"Can we rely on these people and give the country to them? Can all these parties come together? There are seven Prime Ministers aspirants in the third front," Naidu said.

Pointing at regional parties, whose leaders aspired to become the next Prime Minister, he asked, "You are not even contesting in other states. How can you become the Prime Minister. You may have been Chief Ministers, but in your states, na? Prime Minister is for the entire country."

Taking a swipe at the two major Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu – DMK and AIADMK, he said, "If Karunanidhi becomes the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa won’t go the Assembly. If Jayalalithaa becomes the Chief Minister, Karunanidhi won’t go to the Assembly."

DMK and AIADMK, Telugu Desam and YSR, the CPI (M) and Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, the Rashtriya Janat Dal and Janata Dal (United) cannot go together as each other was considered a 'political untouchable' by the rival.

"Once they said BJP was untouchable but now all parties want to come to us. In Tamil Nadu too, parties are coming to join hands with us," he added. BJP has formed an alliance with the DMDK, MDMK, PMK, IJK and few others and hoped to win seats in the southern state.

PTI