Congress party told to prepare for elections

INDIA: The leader of India’s ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, has asked senior members to prepare for elections, her party said Sunday, indicating the possibility of early polls.

Gandhi discussed preparations for a string of local and national elections at a meeting with senior party leaders in New Delhi over the weekend, a Congress spokesman said.

General elections are due by May 2009 at the latest, but there has been widespread speculation that the party may choose to call polls in the winter months around the end of the year.

The comments come as the party’s communist allies pile pressure on the government not to press ahead with a controversial nuclear accord with the United States.

“This meeting was about poll preparations. The Lok Sabha (parliament’s lower house) elections were also discussed,” said Congress official Janardan Dwivedi.

The Congress said members were asked to work on campaign strategies and launch programmes to create awareness about the government’s welfare schemes.

Local elections are due in several key states, including Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The party has so far failed to win support for the nuclear agreement from its left-wing coalition partners who have threatened to bring down the government over the issue.

On Wednesday, the two sides met but the talks failed to end the deadlock.

The nuclear pact, concluded in 2006, aims to bring India into the loop of global atomic commerce. But the communists say it will draw New Delhi too close to Washington.

It is unclear if Congress is ready to call elections as inflation topped 11 percent — the highest in 13 years — raising popular discontent over rising food and fuel prices.

New Delhi, Sunday, AFP