UPA should broadbase alliance to counter BJP: NCP

The NCP today said the UPA should broadbase its alliance of secular forces to stop Narendra Modi-led BJP from polarising the electorate.

Echoing the views of RJD leader Lalu Prasad and LJP chief Ramvilas Paswan, NCP general secretary Tariq Anwar said, "the need of the hour is to stop the BJP from succeeding in its agenda to polarise the electorate on communal lines and any alliance of secular forces must be worked out by the UPA to foil the designs of the communal forces." Anwar, also the Union minister of state for Agriculture and Food Processing, sought to downplay a clean chit given to Modi in connection with his alleged role in 2002 Gujarat riots saying that the judiciary decides on facts like material evidences and eyewitnesses in a case.

In Modi's case, it was difficult to file an FIR against Modi and initiate police action against him as he was the chief minister of Gujarat during and after the riots, the NCP leader said.

"But, nobody will dispute that the Gujarat government failed to take effective steps to contain the riots and bring the culprits to book so Modi will have to live with the stain all his life," Anwar said.

On the AAP's rise as a political force to reckon with since winning assembly elections in Delhi, the NCP leader said that it was social crusader Anna Hazare's agitation on corruption that catalysed the new political outfit's stunning victory.

However, it will be difficult for the AAP to replicate its electoral success elsewhere in the country given its apparent lack of structure and leadership in the states, Anwar said.

"There have been numerous examples in the past of social movement-based political parties impacting public life for a brief duration, but failing to sustain itself on long-term basis," he said.