Opp. still divided on early LS elections
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah arrives at the police investiture ceremony at Raj Bhavan in Srinagar on Monday.
Division in the Opposition on the issue of advancing Lok Sabha elections is clearly perceptible. While the main Opposition BJP is pressing for it, others are ignoring the early polls for different reasons.
On the other hand, the Congress made it clear that the party will choose the timing of the elections.
If the BJP insiders are to be believed, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who is also the BJP’s election campaign committee chief, suggested that the party members in the Lok Sabha should resign en mass, which will compel the Central government to advance the general elections. But others in the party have not enthused by the very strategy, fearing that this would help the government to pass key bills in the Winter Session of Parliament.
The regional players in the UPA, NDA and outside are not keen on early polls viewing that holding the Lok Sabha elections in December or in April-May next year hardly make any difference.
Among the regional parties, the Samajwadi Party, the Trinamul Congress, the Janata Dal(U), the AIADMK and the BJD are in power in UP, West Bengal, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Orissa respectively. They are neither with the NDA nor with the UPA. The Shiromani Akali Dal, the NCP and the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference have been sharing power with the BJP and the Congress in Punjab, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir.
While the Sharad Pawar-led party opposes advancing the polls, the Trinamul Congress is confident that it would retain its numbers in West Bengal whenever the polls are held.
The BSP, Left, DMK and RJD too would not gain by advancing the polls.
“The BJP, it seems, is in a hurry to come to power and that is perhaps why it wants early elections. But it is getting isolated ever since Narendra Modi became the campaign committee chief,” a senior Congress leader said.
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