HYDERABAD, 11 January 2004 — The Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government is all set for elections to the lower house of Parliament and some state legislatures as early as March to cash in on the robust economy and better ties with archrival Pakistan.
BJP spokesman Pramod Mahajan said the party’s national executive committee would meet today and tomorrow to recommend that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee dissolve Parliament and call for the elections.
“If dissolution comes by end of January or first week of February, elections can be announced by Feb. 15 and the process can be completed by March end,” Mahajan said.
Polling dates will be set by the independent Election Commission, which will respond only to a formal request from Vajpayee.
India holds national elections at least every five years. The current Parliament’s term expires in October.
“Early elections are 100 percent certain,” Mahajan said. “Spring is better than the monsoon and April-May may be the best season to hold an election. Everybody in the country knows the elections... are around the corner.
“How (far) around this is will be known by Makar Sankranti,” he added, referring to the harvest festival on Wednesday.
Mahajan said opposition leader Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin would be a campaign issue for his party. “As far as the BJP is concerned Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origins will remain an election issue. She is a foreigner,” Mahajan told reporters.
Sonia Gandhi is the widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991. She was born in Italy but is an Indian citizen.
In New Delhi, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani said he was confident voters in the world’s largest democracy would renew Vajpayee’s five-year mandate.
“I have no doubt about that,” he said. “Our government has given rise to a new climate in the country. The 21st century is certainly going to be India’s century.”
India’s economy is projected to grow more than 7 percent this year on the back of a bumper harvest by farmers, who make up nearly two-thirds of the country’s 1-billion plus people.
India’s main stock index hit a record high Friday after the government announced it was slashing import duties on several consumer goods.
Vajpayee’s popularity has risen sharply since he agreed last week to resume talks with Pakistan, starting next month, to end decades-old hostilities between the nuclear-armed rivals.
