Rivals join hands to prevent Modi to come to power: BJP

The BJP Tuesday accused its rival parties of teaming up against it in the wake of the CPI expressing its willingness to align with the Trinamool Congress to prevent the BJP's Narendra Modi from coming to power.

"We are seeing how the CPI has extended its hand of friendship to the Trinamool. When Modi and BJP are talking about good governance and development, our rivals are teaming up and planning only about how to stop Modi," Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told media persons here.

He was reacting to Communist Party of India (CPI) stalwart A.B. Bardhan asserting his party was not opposed to the idea of joining hands with Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool.

"I have the same view, that she (Banerjee) could be one of the factors, one of the constituents. The whole idea is to keep Modi out," Bardhan was quoted as saying in Thiruvananthapuram.

Prasad also took a jibe at the Left parties' proposed Third Front and the Banerjee-mooted Federal Front.

"First, there was the Third Front, then came the fourth and finally the Federal Front. But all of that now has culminated into a convenient front whose sole aim is to stop Modi and the BJP-led NDA from coming to power," he said.

He also attacked the Congress and its star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for her "neech rajniti" (low-level politics) remarks against Modi.

"Her remarks are highly condemnable and are in fact an insult to the poor and the exploited class of people in the country. She should apologise for insulting the society. In fact, the remarks are indicative of the Congress's desperation because it knows the BJP is coming to power," Prasad said.

Reiterating his party's stand that "massive rigging" occurred during the April 30 Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal, Prasad said it was an acid test for the Election Commission and urged the panel to ensure free and fair balloting.