Voters no longer trust coalition of rivals: Jaitley

Enthused by the exit poll projections on the return of a BJP-led NDA at the Centre, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said that 'coalition of rivals' were untenable alliances and voters were no longer willing to trust them.

“Political analysts are confused but the voters are clear. They don't elect hung Parliament where ugly and untenable alliances have a role to play,” Jaitley said in an article after multiple exit polls predicted a second term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He said that the hard reality was that when multiple exit polls conveyed the same message, the direction of the result broadly would be in consonance with the message.

According to Jaitley, the exit polls indicated towards the maturing of democracy and listed six messages the voter had tried to give by exercising his franchise.

He also said that issues of national interest have now caught the imagination of the people over caste considerations and that voters don’t buy fake issues.

“The personalised campaign against Prime Minister Modi did not cut much ice in 2014 and may not cut any ice in 2019. Leaders are judged on merit and not on caste or family names,” the minister said.

Jaitley claimed that the prime minister’s style of rising above caste and concentrating on performance-related issues received far more acceptability with the electorate.

“The arithmetic of caste coalitions loses to the chemistry on the ground created for the front runner in the elections. This chemistry is in the form of catching the imagination of the people on issues of national interest,” Jaitley said.

He also reiterated that the Congress' first family is no longer an asset but an albatross around the neck of the party.

“Without the family, they don’t get the crowd, with it they don’t get the votes,” Jaitley said.