‘BJP preparing for mid-term polls’

BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Tuesday said his party was preparing for parliamentary polls next year along with elections in nine states. “The current arrangement between the Congress and Left parties was just a matter of time, or could well be termed a commercial break,” he said here.

“Both sides are buying time to clear off some of their pending works. The arrangement may be called off any moment for mid-term polls,” he predicted. He said the BJP would be returning to power both in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and the Congress should stop dreaming about a victory in either of these states.

Naqvi, however, parried questions on whether Shanta Kumar and Prem Kumar Dhumal would be asked to contest the Assembly polls or kept out of the fray, saying the decision would be taken by the central election committee.