New Delhi: Left parties on Saturday hit back at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over his charge that the Third Front was helping the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls, saying the Congress had instead failed to check the saffron forces.
One of the Left parties, CPI, also said that the PM's statement that he would have quit if he had failed to get the Indo-US nuclear deal passed, showed that he had made it his "personal agenda" and had "pressurised" the Congress and the allies.
On Singh's charge, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said that "it is not the Congress, but the non-Congress, non-BJP alternative which have effectively put paid to the chances of BJP coming to power at the Centre. It is only this alternative which has isolated the BJP."
Karat, who is campaigning in Karnataka, said: "BJP cannot even make its mark in states like Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh where its traditional allies have joined the Third Front as the secular alternative is emerging stronger with more UPA allies falling in line".
"Therefore, it is an illusion that the formation of Third Front would automatically help the BJP come back to power," he said.