There is no competition between the UPA and NDA which is a weak force and has witnessed desertion by its allies, with the recent one being that of BJD. The BJP-led NDA should know that alliances built on political opportunism are inherently unsteady.

Advani has been the Prime Minister-in-waiting for the last 40 years and will remain so as his dream of becoming PM will never be fulfilled.

The NDA is a weak force today, deserted by its partners. It is no competition to the UPA. Advani has remained PM-in-waiting for the last 40 years. He will remain so in the future also,’ union minister and Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal told reporters.

Contending that Congress was the only national party with a presence in each state, Sibal also dismissed the Third Front as a "non-starter "and claimed it had "disintegrated" before its formation while none of its constituents had a national base.

The third front has no national base. The only thing to bring them together is the desire to pull themselves out of irrelevance. No one knows who is in the front and who supports whom. The Third Front has disintegrated even before its formation. The third front, of which the Left parties are a part, is neither cemented by ideology nor had a common minimum programme. The Left parties will lose their bargaining capacity after the polls as their strength is likely to be depleted substantially.

The people of India are required to vote for a formation without any knowledge of its Prime Ministerial candidate, with each leader of the Front being an aspirant for that position. The people of our country have experienced coalition governments since 1996. India needs a cohesive government which can provide leadership, stability and give a sense of direction to its people. The Congress party is perhaps the only national party which has both a national presence in each state and a national agenda to take India forward.

Today, there is a historic moment before us. People are thinking that time has come to give absolute majority to the national party (Congress)

We are optimistic of winning the forthcoming polls with full majority. In fact, people want to give an absolute majority to the Congress party. People of this country want that Congress should be supported. Congress wants that it should get majority (in the polls) by taking along all its alliance parties with us.