BJP terms UPA arrogant, asks cadre to be ready for polls
New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) Sharpening its attack on the United Progressive Alliance government at the centre, the Bharatiya Janata Party Saturday called it "arrogant" and claimed the prime minister "has lost his confidence". It called its cadres to be ready for possible mid-term polls.
Talking to reporters on the concluding day of its national executive's two-day meeting here, party leader Arun Jaitley said that the prime minister "has lost his confidence".
"The style of governance is full of arrogance and intolerance," he said.
"There was always a loss of authority, there is also now a loss of confidence in dealing with the situation," he said.
Jaitley said the main agenda of the BJP's own meeting was "good governance".
The two-day meet was focused on senior party leader L.K. Advani's anti-corruption 'yatra' which begins Oct 11 from a Bihar village.
The meeting, which was skipped by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and two of the party's two discredited chief ministers -- B.S.Yeddyurappa of Karnataka and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishak of Uttarakhand, also discussed the probability of a mid-term election to the Lok Sabha.
In her address, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said the BJP should be ready for a mid-term poll and to form an alternate government.
“This government will not last long, and being the principal opposition party it is our responsibly to be ready for this challenge,” Swaraj was quoted as saying by Jaitley.
“We must learn from the Congress' mistakes and maintain a clean image and unity in party, keeping allies together...” she said. "This is how we will fulfill our duty as an opposition and also be prepared for an alternate government."
Advani, meanwhile, said: "Government is in a suicidal mode. We don't need to disturb it.”
The party also intensified its attack against Home Minister P. Chidambaram, calling his patch-up with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee a "farce".
"The farce which was enacted demolishes the very principle of common responsibility," Jaitley said.
"The whole country was concerned not with the process of making the document, we were concerned with the contents of the documents and that has not been discussed," he said.
Mukherjee Thursday evening gave a statement that the March 25 note from his ministry to the Prime Minister's Office, saying Chidambaram could have stopped the 2G spectrum scam, did not reflect his views on the issue.