Click to play videoNew Delhi: The UPA Government is now on shaky grounds and the Opposition is ready to corner it on a list of issues.
The BJP called a harried press conference on Sunday afternoon and made it clear that the possibility of mid-term polls cannot be ruled out. In fact, it may be as early as within the next four months.
"The Government is crippled and the BJP is ready for a no-confidence motion. The Left has expressed its concerns. Clearly, mid-term polls may be up within the next four months. And you cannot rule out the possibility,” BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.
BJP sources told CNN-IBN that the party will take out a rally on Monday. It is not averse to moving a no-confidence motion. The party will take on the government on the issue of Quattrochchi's release, price-rise and the nuclear deal.
Senior BJP leader and former Union minister Sushma Swaraj said a mid-term poll to the Lok Sabha may be held any time in the prevailing political situation.
Ruling out the possibility of the BJP forming the government at the Centre with the help of the Left, she said mid-term polls were inevitable if the Left withdrew support to the UPA Government.
She alleged that the UPA Government was surrendering the nuclear sovereignty of the country, earned by the previous NDA Government under the leadership of AB Vajpayee, to the US under the nuclear treaty.
"We faced sanctions from America after conducting the Pokhran tests. The Indo-US nuclear treaty is being opposed by the Left parties and the BJP. But the reasons are different. Traditionally, the Left parties oppose wherever America is involved. But we are opposing it because we love our country,'' she said.
The party asked its workers to be ready for 'any eventuality' and even a snap poll to the Lok Sabha in the wake of the sharp divide between the ruling Congress and Left parties over the nuclear deal.
PTI adds from Bangalore:
"You must be ready for any eventuality as anything may happen at any time," BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu told party workers in Bangalore as part of a nation-wide programme for strengthening the party in every polling booth.
"The UPA Government may collapse. It may prolong or may continue as a lame-duck government," Naidu said. Though the BJP is working towards the General Election in 2009, it should be ready for a snap poll," he pointed out.
Noting that the Congress and the Communists were in a 'Catch 22 situation', he said both sides were not following the 'coalition dharma'.
Naidu said the UPA government's performance was 'very bad' with rise in the prices, terrorism and the "appeasement policy (for minorities) and compromises on each and every issue making the people disillusioned."
Naidu said all polling booths in the country would be covered under the programme by September 25.
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