BJP, Modi should not miss our opportunity of being front runner: Jaitley

New Delhi: With AAP's victory weighing on his mind, Arun Jaitley today cautioned BJP and Narendra Modi not to miss out on the "rare" opportunity of being "frontrunner" and asked them to reach out to voters with "big ideas" that can eclipse the new party in Lok Sabha polls.

Admitting that there is transiently a space in several parts of the country for Aam Aadmi Party, the BJP leader, however, said its performance after government formation in Delhi has "not been too inspiring" and that it had a "narrow focus on petty corruption".

Arun Jaitley. AFP

Referring to the recent assembly results, he said, "With Congress getting squeezed out, the BJP is the front runner. It has to increase its pace of activity and penetrate into every house. The challenge before the BJP is to consolidate its gains.

He said the 'Modi for PM' campaign has to be blended with the 'agenda for India' - an agenda that is specific, clear and comprises of big ideas.

"The big ideas have an ability to eclipse a new party which has a narrow focus only on petty corruption," he said, reffring to the Aam Aadmi Party, to which BJP narrowly lost out in the race to power in Delhi recently.

"For us in the BJP this is a rare opportunity which we cannot hope to miss. In Narendra Modi the BJP has the most acceptable Prime Ministerial candidate. The party and its leader must now convey its big idea of the future agenda for India," Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha said.

He said even though AAP is trying to alter the corruption agenda, it is deflecting the attention to "petty corruption" and restricting itself to "symbolism" which do not improve the quality of life of the common man. "These gimmicks do not have a lasting impact."

He said Delhi government has no agenda to evolve Delhi into a global city.

Its activities have centered around vehicles in which Ministers travel, the houses they occupy, the freebies they can distribute, how to sting people and other similar activities intended to occupy media centre stage.

"Some of these symbolisms may be important but they do not improve the quality of life of the ordinary citizens."

On corruption, Jaitley said there is no reference to corruption allegations which can embarrass the Congress like the CWG scam, 2G spectrum allocation, Coal block allocation or corruption of Sheila Dixit government. "It is deflecting the attention to petty corruption."

Taking a jibe at leaders joining AAP, he said, "some of the recruits have traditionally received more air-time than actual votes."

Hitting out at the Congress, Jaitley said the journey of Congress in recent past has been from "arrogance towards extinction" and never has Congress' prime ministerial candidate's rating been so low.

PTI