Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the opposition ‘mahagathbandhan’ or grand alliance is a club of ‘nawabs of negativity’ and the only ‘glue’ of this diverse grouping is its opposition to one man Narendra Modi.

Addressing to a private news channel event held in Mumbai yesterday through video conferencing Mr. Jaitley expressed confidence that people of an aspirational society which is politically conscious will not buy into this “suicidal” alternative. He added that the nawabs of negativity may come together but that is not something that will carry credibility as far as people are concerned.

Mr Jaitley said that the ‘mahagathbandhan’ has neither the ideological cohesiveness nor a common programme aimed at building the country or an individual leader. He also said that as against the BJP’s strengths of leadership, decisiveness, performance and potential, the point being put forward by the opposition is of arithmetic, and in politics, it is not the arithmetic but chemistry which succeeds.