The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday hinted at the possibility of the Lok Sabha election being held at the end of March.
"We prefer elections to be held within 45 days of dissolution of Lok Sabha. If dissolution comes by end of January or first week of February, elections can be announced by February 15 and the process can be completed by March end," BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan told the press in Hyderabad.
The party will be holding its national executive meeting in the city on Sunday and Monday.
Mahajan said the Election Commission was duty-bound to facilitate a popular government 'at the earliest'.
Asserting his party would not force a schedule on EC, Mahajan said, "The twin duty of Election Commission is to ensure free and fair polls and to give a popular government to people at the earliest. These two duties are not exclusive of each other."
He said the month of September, the original schedule for LS polls, is the 'worst month' to conduct elections in view of rainy season in many parts of the country.
"Ideally, we think February is the best month for elections. Since it is not possible now to conduct polls in February, we want elections at the earliest possible time," he said.
Asserting the BJP-led NDA would fight the elections on three points -- leadership, stability and performance, he said Vajpayee's leadership was 'head and shoulder above all the living leaders today'.
He said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's nationality and ability would naturally be questioned in the elections.
"There is no captain, there is no team and some kind of hotch-potch combination is there," he said referring to Congress efforts to cobble up a coalition ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
He said the NDA coalition has exposed the myth that only Congress could provide stability in the country.
Regarding the government's performance, Mahajan claimed that Vajpayee Government in one term has done so much work, which no other government could do in the last 50 years.
"The coming polls will be a repeat of 1999 model. We are going to fight elections on a joint NDA agenda though we (BJP) have separate views on a number of issues," Mahajan said and rubbished the talk of a 'hidden agenda'.
On the possibility of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh joining the NDA fold, he said, "As things stand at this point in time, no direct contact has been established with AIADMK chief (Jayalalithaa). Regarding Kalyan Singh, there is no proposal from his side nor an invitation from our side."
The BJP leader sought to paint a contrasting picture saying while NDA represented a strong leadership, political stability and all-round performance, the opposition camp was beset by internal contradictions and voices of dissent against Gandhi's leadership.
Invoking sporting jargon, he said, "For the coming wrestling match, we have our wrestler in Vajpayee, but nobody knows who is on the other side. We have declared our captain but we do not know who is their captain."
Referring to CPI-M leader Somnath Chatterjee' reported statement favouring Manmohan Singh's candidature for prime minister's post, he said, "This is an amusing spectacle of a communist party doing a complete turn-around. For ten long years, they were criticising the economic policies of Manmohan Singh."
As part of an action plan for achieving 'Mission 2004', aimed at securing 300 seats for BJP and a two-third majority for NDA, the national executive meeting would also take stock of the party's relationship with existing partners and possibility of finding new allies, Mahajan said.
"Our doors are open for anybody to come," he said asserting his party was confident of making inroads in southern states as well.
The BJP leader said the coming elections could not be described as 'mid-term polls' as they would be held 'hardly three to four months ahead of schedule'.
He said the Telugu Desam Party-BJP alliance would continue in Andhra Pradesh where there was 'mutual gains' in the previous polls.
