UPA, Left afraid of elections: BJP

NEW DELHI: The hard political reality is that the ruling United Progressive Alliance and its supporting Left parties are afraid of elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party said here on Friday, while describing the “political theatre of the absurd” that has been played out in public over the last couple of weeks.

Party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said the recent political manoeuvrings by the Samajwadi Party smacked of political opportunism. “The UPA began as an anti-BJP platform and it had now degenerated into the worst kind of opportunistic alliance that was also trying its best to ward off the spectre of an early Lok Sabha election,” he added. Neither the UPA partners nor the Left wanted to face immediate elections, he commented.

The party scoffed at the Left for wanting to work out modalities of withdrawal of support when everyone knows what the modalities were. “It has become clear that the supporting Left parties are now looking for a date for withdrawal of support. As soon as they do that the Manmohan Singh government will be in a minority. Political morality demands that the Prime Minister should seek a trust vote at the earliest.”

Mr. Prasad commented on the “absurdity” of the Samajwadi Party apologising to Congress president Sonia Gandhi nine years after it had declined to give her the support she needed to replace the then Vajpayee government.

He lashed out at the SP for declaring that the BJP was its political enemy number one. He said such a stance was “anti-democratic … We have ruled at the Centre for 6 years and the BJP is in power, with or without allies, in 12 States. We have reached this milestone because of the support of the people. They [the SP] will not succeed in halting the BJP’s march forward.”

Mr. Prasad noted that the adverse effects of the political uncertainty, generated by the UPA-Left stand-off, on governance were being felt by the people. “The government is paralysed. Important decisions that need to be taken are not being taken. Foreign policy has become hostage to communal politics and in coming days inflation will rise to 13 to 14 per cent,” he said. The government in fact had run out of ideas on how to control inflation, which had now reached 11.62 per cent. The BJP hoped the people would give a drubbing to the UPA whenever elections were held.