As Congress president Sonia Gandhi continued consultations with party chief ministers and senior leaders before taking a political call on the Indo-US nuclear deal, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy on Thursday said he was prepared to face early elections if the party leadership so decided.“Timing of the election is for the Congress president and the Prime Minister to decide, but we have no problem with early elections. Right now, we have 31 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats from the state. We are sure to increase the tally to at least 36 whenever the next Lok Sabha elections are held,” Reddy told The Indian Express here on Thursday.He was in the Capital to meet the Congress chief, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and other senior leaders. His meetings are understood to be a part of the central leadership’s consultation process over the nuclear deal, although YSR maintained that it was in connection with affairs in the state.For the Congress leadership, which stood solidly behind the PM on going ahead with the nuclear deal irrespective of the Left’s opposition and a risk of early elections, mounting inflation remained the biggest worry. Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his Delhi counterpart Sheila Dikshit were learnt to have conveyed the same in their meeting with Sonia last week.The Andhra CM, however, maintained that even if the party remained concerned about inflation, people understood the reality about extraneous factors being responsible for it. “I am not sure about the timing of elections, but one thing is sure: a large section of people believes the Congress is not at fault and it’s an international phenomenon. We can tackle it,” said the CM adding that prices of food articles had not gone up so much across the country. Moreover, the Andhra Pradesh Government has already “insulated” people against inflation to a large extent by providing rice at Rs 2 per kg, dal at Rs 30 per kg and groundnut oil at Rs 60 per kg. YSR also dispelled “notions” about the adverse implication of the Indo-US nuclear deal for the Congress in terms of minority votebank. “It is a mistaken concept that entering into nuclear deal is against any minority community. This deal is to provide energy security to the people and the country. We will be able to convince the people about this,” said YSR. He said the Congress might have lost in some Assembly elections in recent times, “but that was because of local factors”. “We will win in most of the states in the next Lok Sabha elections,” said the CM.The Chief Minister was upbeat about the results of the recent Lok Sabha and Assembly bypolls in Telangana region in which the Congress made significant gains. YSR, however, refuted suggestions that these elections were a referendum on the statehood demand.
