Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee wants to lead the Bharatiya Janata Party into a mid-term election in November, provided the monsoon this year is good.
The BJP has already begun assessing its electoral prospects. The party's national executive, which will meet in Indore early next month to prepare for the four state assembly elections later this year, will also evaluate the advantage of a simultaneous Lok Sabha election on the basis of reports gathered from all over the country.
The Lok Sabha election is only due in September next year. But Vajpayee wants to advance it if he gets some assurance that this year will not see another bad monsoon like 2002.
Vajpayee has already dropped hints to BJP politicians and some officials in the government of his desire to hold the election along with the assembly polls due in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Chhattisgarh in November.
The latest hint came at one of the four rounds of meetings Finance Minister Jaswant Singh and top officials of his ministry had with the prime minister when they were preparing the Union Budget 2003. His advice: the Budget should be good and soft as a harsh Budget may hurt the BJP if the monsoon fails again this year.
The weather watch group in the agriculture ministry has already told the prime minister's office that the 2003 monsoon is going to be normal from indications available so far. The group, which keeps in constant touch with the meteorological department, has, however, pointed out that a better forecast is possible only after the sampling done in April and May.
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