BJP mocks attempts of oppn parties to unite against it

Amid efforts by regional parties to join forces against the BJP, the ruling party today made light of such attempts, claiming that national politics had grown beyond them and that many smaller parties were keen to join hands with it.
To a question at a press conference about the BSP's support to its arch-rival SP in two Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said everybody had a right to make efforts.
He took potshots at BSP chief Mayawati, citing her reported comments that her party's support to the SP was reciprocal for the latter's help in Rajya Sabha polls and said it was a "rare" statement and such remarks were seldom heard in Indian politics.

He also referred to an infamous scrap involving the two parties in 1995 to highlight their past acrimony, and claimed that India of 2018 was different and it had moved beyond such attempts to cobble together alliances.
When quizzed about talks between Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrashekar Rao, Prasad said the concept of a third front was "illusionary and illusory" and it would not work in the new India.
He told reporters that the BJP too has 23-24 allies and more and more smaller parties wanted to join with it, referring to its success in winning over allies in three North Eastern states to form governments.

"The BJP is earning credibility from smaller parties. We have respect and concerns for their sensitivities and make them partners in development," he said.
He also described the Left parties' charge that the BJP used money power in elections in Tripura as "downright insult" to voters.
Prasad claimed that the party's win in Tripura would bring about a "tectonic shift" in national politics and its effects would be visible in states like West Bengal and Kerala.