It was "interesting and amazing" that CPI-M general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet has suddenly started talking about the Third Front forming the next government, Advani told reporters here.

"Does it mean that the communists who have been reduced to the palanquin-bearers of Congress president Sonia Gandhi have realised that her party will not win the elections?" he asked adding "in a way, it is an indirect admission that the NDA is heading for victory."

A bi-polar situation has emerged in the country's national political scenario, he said adding BJP has become the principal pole with Congress becoming the subsidiary. Asked if he was confident of NDA's victory on the basis of exit polls, Advani, who is also chairman of BJP's central election committee, said the forecasts favouring NDAwere based on the assessments made by outside agencies as well as his own party.

Predicting a defeat for Sonia Gandhi in Bellary, Advani said BJP was hopeful of retaining the Amethi seat where also the Congress president is in the fray.

Refusing to admit that Vajapyee-led coalition government did not work, he said AIADMK would not have been able to cause problem for the government if it had more than 252 seats. But this time this kind of experience would not be repeated as NDA was likely to get a comfortable majority, he said.

Asked about TDP not joining the NDA, the BJP leader said that from the beginning TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu had maintained that his party would remain outside the NDA but support the government.

Turning to "allegations" against Vajpayee government levelled by Congress and CPI-M, Advani said in the run-up to the polls they have let loose a "barrage of lies" aimed at defaming the prime minister.

Dismissing Opposition charges as "ludicrous", he asked how could a political partyaccuse Vajpayee of joining hands with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif just to get political benefit. Advani said that by virtually calling the prime minister a traitor recently, Congress had indicated that it had abandoned all sense of responsibility towards the nation and its democratic traditions.

"Congress and its junior partner CPI-M," he said, "must realise that in their futile bid to defame the prime minister in this manner, they were actually defaming India and Indian democracy."