Senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily today said a third front will be a "stillborn child," and asserted that only a "confederation" of parties, led by his national outfit, can take on the BJP-led NDA effectively.

With reports of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Telangana counterpart K Chadrasekhar Rao making efforts to forge a non-BJP, non-Congress front doing the rounds, he said without the Congress, one cannot think of an "alternative" to the BJP.

"It (third front) will be a stillborn child. Without the Congress, which has a spread all over the country, you can't think of an alternative," the former Union minister told PTI.

"The Congress has to lead (a broad anti-BJP front)," Moily said.

"Definitely, they (those trying to prop up a third front) can't do without the Congress. Without the Congress, they can't think of finding a common leader because they are all regional forces," he said, adding that the regional parties will have to bind themselves with a national party (Congress).

The former Karnataka chief minister said that third front combinations in the past without the Congress had failed.

Any third front could ultimately succumb to the pressure of the BJP and only subserve the interest of the lead party of the NDA, Moily said.

"It (anti-BJP front) has to be done by a combination of national party (Congress) and regional parties," he said.

The "communal" BJP and its allies have to fought by all "secular" parties putting their heads together, he said.

"Otherwise, it (the country) will be just like, as one of my friends was telling, (single-party ruled, Communist) China," he said.

The Congress leader alleged that the country is today ruled by the BJP and "extra-constitutional authority" RSS, and not by the NDA government.

"The private secretaries and staff of the Union ministers are inducted from the RSS," he claimed, adding, "It is quite a dangerous trend for democracy."

Moily said the fight against the BJP required  a confederation of forces with "absolute clarity, ideology and philosophy."

"Unitedly (Congress and 'secular' parties) we will succeed, but divided, we won't succeed," he added.