'Scary' Opposition scenario will be routed in LS polls: Jaitley

The "frightening and scary scenario" that the Opposition promises as an alternative will be responsible for its rout in this year's Lok Sabha elections, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday.

"The positive reasons for the Prime Minister's acceptability has been his decisiveness, integrity and performance, his delivery of resources to the poor, and his security doctrine which has been a game changer. The NDA's strength has been a complete absence of any confusion about leadership or programme. There is an absolute consensus," he said in a blog post.

Jaitley said that the groundswell in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become consolidated as the seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha elections approaches to a closure.

"The not-so-positive reason for the Prime Minister's high acceptability levels is the absence of any cogent or coherent alternative. Conventionally, it used to be referred to as the 'TINA' factor. This effectively means that 'There is no alternative.' If the Opposition is giving vague assurances of an alternative, the same is either too scary or absolutely frightening," the Finance Minister said.

Jaitley said that the Opposition could not conduct a meeting and forge an alliance in key states "for the obvious fear that many will not attend it."

"The common thread which brings them together is negativism - to get rid of one person. They have no agreement on either a leader or programme. They are a completely fractured Opposition which could not come together before or during the election," he said.

Attacking the Opposition, Jaitley further said, "Who will believe their assurance that they can come together after the election? They are institution wreckers. They do not allow Parliament to function. They attack and intimidate judges. Now Election Commission is their next target. The attack on the EVMs and the Election Commission is an advance alibi for defeat on the 23rd May 2019."

"Their leaders represent temperamental mavericks, some highly corrupt and many a governance disaster. The electorate wonders, if they can ever provide a cogent alternative. Past history belies the longevity of such opportunistic and fragile combinations. To the electorate, they provide an absolutely frightening scenario," he said.

The Finance Minister said that not a single political analyst in the last few days had foreseen the velocity of the Prime Minister's groundswell in a state like West Bengal.

"As the seventh phase of election approaches to a closure, the groundswell in favour of Prime Minister Modi is becoming stronger. Except in the last few days, not one political analyst had foreseen the velocity of this groundswell even in a state like Bengal. The largest size of the Prime Minister's public rallies have been in Bengal," Jaitley added.

He further said, "The frightening and scary scenario that the Opposition promises will be responsible for its rout. This consolidates the groundswell in favour of Modi.