NEW DELHI, 21 February 2008 — Though Lok Sabha elections are slated for May 2009, leading opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) expects polls to take place this year. “We expect the elections to take place in winter. Since the delimitation process may take a couple of months, the next round of state elections might take place in October-November this year and the general elections too may take place either along with it or immediately thereafter,” a senior BJP leader said.
Delimitation process, which was approved by President Pratibha Patil earlier this week, will lead to redrawing of parliamentary and assembly constituencies. To prepare for the polls, the BJP has formed a panel comprising 15 senior leaders that will select candidates. “Each member will select between 35 and 50 candidates for the next parliamentary election,” a BJP leader said. The panel will meet BJP prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani on Feb. 25.
“We have already completed two processes for the elections. The first being the selection of the prime ministerial candidate and the second, the establishment of an election management and campaign team,” the BJP leader said. He said there were chances that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) may hold parliamentary elections soon after summer this year.
The new BJP panel will include Murli Manohar Joshi, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Jaswant Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Yashwant Sinha, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Gopinath Munde, Bal Apte, Ram Lal and Ananth Kumar. Surprisingly, it will not have either the prime ministerial candidate Advani, party President Rajnath Singh or former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Meanwhile, some moves by the Congress have raised questions whether the party weighed early Lok Sabha elections. The latest being the Sunday-night meeting between Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. Though Congress has tried to limit the significance of the meeting as a “courtesy call,” its impact was noted when the following day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Mayawati. This was followed by an announcement that total resource available to state under the 11th plan would be 3.5 times more than resources made available under the 10th plan. Given that Mayawati had been issuing ultimatum for withdrawal of her party’s support to the UPA government, her meeting with Sonia apparently had some effect.
