Calling PM weak didnt work for BJP: Jaitley

Taking off from where senior BJP leader L K Advani left who said on Thursday that this election marked consolidation of the process....

Taking off from where senior BJP leader L K Advani left who said on Thursday that this election marked consolidation of the process of the countrys evolution into a bipolar polity party general secretary Arun Jaitley on Friday said this election was a defining moment of maturity of Indian electorate which didnt want a Third Front or Fourth Front Government (which would not last its full term) in the country.

Significantly,the BJP general secretary also said sympathy for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for being prevented by the Left parties from carrying out his plans,and a surge in favour of the UPA Government led to voters rejecting the NDA and other fronts. He also conceded that calling Singh a weak Prime Minister did not work as people sympathised with him.

There was a surge in favour of the UPA Government as people felt the Left parties had prevented it from carrying out its plans. This led to the rout of the third and fourth fronts as voters believed they would get a little over 100 seats and rule with Congress support like in 1996, said Jaitley.

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The ripple effect of this was that we also got a beating in some of the seats, he said,adding that state governments like those in Bihar,Orissa,Himachal Pradesh,Chhattisgarh,Karnataka,and to some extent Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh were able to resist this urge,for they had given sober and decent governance.

Jaitley said factors like support of Sikhs to Congress due to Manmohan Singh and his sober image,the division of votes between the BJP and MNS in Maharashtra and local factors also contributed to the poor performance of the NDA.