UPA allies gear up for winter elections

Despite their ongoing efforts to avoid early polls due to the tug-of-war between the Congress and Left parties over the Indo-US nuclear deal...

Despite their ongoing efforts to avoid early polls due to the tug-of-war between the Congress and Left parties over the Indo-US nuclear deal, key UPA partners like the RJD and LJP are gearing up for winter Lok Sabha polls.

Sources in the two parties confirmed that they had already asked their leaders and workers to pull up their socks, keeping an October-November poll in mind. Even though leaders of the two outfits opposed to each other want elections to be held as scheduled early next year, they won’t be surprised if it is advanced by a couple of months in view of the stiff stand taken by the Left parties over the nuke deal and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh being adamant to clinch it in time.

“We want this Government to last its full term. It would be good if elections are held as scheduled early next year. But what difference does it make if elections are held a couple of months earlier?” said an RJD minister here.

Story continues below this ad

The RJD has started preparations for holding training camps for party workers at the grassroots level to educate them about the issues they have to raise among the masses. Similarly, the message from the top Bihar leaders of the LJP is to get going. Party president Ramvilas Paswan is himself headed for his home turf Bihar and is scheduled to visit his constituency Hajipur and hold meetings with party leaders and workers regarding poll preparedness.

“When poll canvassing peaks up, I hardly get time for my own constituency. Therefore, I prefer to pay a visit to my voters in advance,” Paswan told The Sunday Express when asked about his visit to Hajipur.

Almost all UPA allies have pledged their support to the Government over the nuclear deal with the rider that early polls should be avoided to escape people’s anger over rising inflation. The Congress, however, is learnt to have succeeded in selling the idea of a winter poll underlining that early monsoon would yield a bumper crop and by October-November inflation would ease and usher in a favourable environment.

For the underprivileged, the support base of parties like the RJD and LJP, the nuclear deal is a non-issue against rising prices of essential commodities that has thrown lives of the poor out of gear. While backing the Government over the nuke deal, these two parties are exerting pressure over it to contain inflation at any cost before they knock at voters’ doors.

Story continues below this ad

Meanwhile, on Friday, CPI general secretary D Raja called on RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav. Sources said the CPI leader discussed the outcome of an early poll and tried to convince Yadav that early polls would be unfavourable for all of them.

On Thursday, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, too, had come calling on the RJD chief, who has emerged as a strong votary of the nuclear deal.