Get ready for polls, Sonia tells Congress workers

A DECADE AT THE TOP: Sonia Gandhi became Congress President in April 1998.

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New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi has sounded the poll bugle and asked her party to get the party ready for elections

Senior party leader Veerappa Moily delivered Sonia’s message at a press conference on Saturday in New Delhi. The Congress President met senior party leaders on Saturday to discuss the strategy for the next Lok Sabha elections.

"This meeting was about poll preparations. The Lok Sabha elections were also discussed, the party has to get ready for polls and everybody has been asked to draw up programmes and submit the same at the next meeting," All India Congress Committee General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi was quoted as saying by PTI.

Sonia also directed Congress leaders to tell people about party's achievements like the Rs 60,000-crore farm loan waiver scheme announced by Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the 2008 Union Budget.

She is also reviewing party's preparations for elections, which include not only the Lok Sabha elections but also the upcoming state elections later this year.

CNN-IBN Chief Political Correspondent Pallavi Ghosh reports, "Sonia Gandhi is still not believed to have made up her mind completely on whether there should be an early election. She has been meeting party leaders and the question being asked 'is the Congress and the UPA prepared for elections?' Rising inflation and elections do not go hand in hand. No political party wants to have elections at this stage. The big dilemma for Sonia is Prime Minister's stand on the nuclear deal. She has already said that Congress is with the Prime Minister on the deal. There is division in the party over the elections, as many leaders don't want to go to the voter right now. However, the final call will be taken by her."

With the Left threatening to withdraw support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre over the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Deal the prospects of an early General Elections have become high.

The Left has warned the UPA Government against operationalising the nuclear deal but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is backing the deal and has got the support of his party President on the issue.

The Congress is reportedly trying to get the support of Samjawadi Party on the nuclear deal in the Lok Sabha in case of a trial of strength on the issue.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had on Thursday released its first list of candidates for the next Lok Sabha elections. BJP's prime ministerial candidate LK Advani will contest from Gandhinagar constituency in Gujarat.

The list has names of five other candidates - Navjot Singh Sidhu (Amritsar), Vinod Khanna (Gurdaspur), Shripad Y Naik (Panaji), Anurag Thakur (Hamirpur) and TPS Rawat (Pauri).

Lok Sabha elections are due around April next year.