Stating that the UPA government at the Centre may collapse any time due to its contradictions and failure to adhere to coalition dharma, Bharatiya Janata Party senior leader M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday predicted that parliamentary elections will be held this October-November instead of in 2014.
Addressing a press conference in Bangalore, Mr. Naidu said: “Aware of the growing disenchantment among people and the deteriorating economic situation that is bound to become gloomier, the Congress wants early parliamentary polls along with the Assembly elections for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Chhattisgarh some time in October-November itself.”
He said: “The Congress knows that it has to face a tough situation following water scarcity, power shortage and adverse weather conditions in addition to a further dip in its popularity if it has to wait for the Parliament to complete its full term of five years to face the election during March-April 2014, which will be a peak summer season.”
He said the UPA was at present on ventilator as several of its allies had severed ties with it and the Samajwadi Party was waiting for a suitable occasion to break away. He said early elections to the Parliament would be good for the country as that would end political uncertainty.
Claiming that the BJP-led NDA was the only political alternative for the country, he ridiculed the efforts to form a Third Front by terming it as a “mirage”. The Third Front has been a failed experiment, he maintained.
Ridiculing the UPA allies for continuing to support the UPA despite criticising its failures, he said: “The UPA allies are those who talk-out in the morning, walkout in the afternoon and bailout (the government) in the evening”.
Alleging that the country’s economy was in a shambles owing to mismanagement of economy and policy paralysis, he said the country’s industrialists were migrating to other countries at a time when Finance Minister P. Chidambaram was trying to woo foreign investors.
Accusing the UPA of failure even in foreign affairs, he said: “India’s image had suffered a serious dent in the world and smaller countries too are not taking India seriously.”
