Senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday rejected reports that Narendra Modi had called Defence Minister AK Antony a Pakistani agent. “Antony is a friend… We do not have any prejudice against him,” Naidu said in Kochi, adding that the media had misrepresented Modi’s statement.
With regard to Antony’s alleged inability to take crucial decisions at crucial times, Naidu likened him to a cook who did not know cooking. He said that the unity and integrity of the country had been affected under the leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Defence Minister Antony and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Claiming that the BJP would get a minimum of 250 seats and the NDA 300 seats in the 16th lok Sabha election, Naidu said, “It is NDA versus chaos.” The people were fed up with instability, policy paralysis and lack of leadership, the BJP leader said, adding, “The economy has collapsed… India has very uncomfortable relationship with neighbours.”
Describing the Third Front as a mirage, he said, “It is a tired and failed front,” and added that the Federal Front had seven prime ministerial candidates in it. About Aravind Kejriwal, Naidu said he lacked credibility. “The day he took the Congress support to form the Government in Delhi, he lost his credibility,” he said.