Sharad Pawar’s NCP seems to have taken the lead in this with the party chief writing to all the party MPs to go to their constituencies to take stock of all the development work being done.

The indications from NCP are that with Pawar being part of the UPA-Left mechanism that is being increasingly seen by the ruling dispensation as only a means to buy some more time for the government before the inevitable talks to take forward the deal begins, the party has thought it fit to start its own preparations for a possible early general elections. The party’s national executive will also meet in Delhi at Mr Pawar’s residence on September 26 to take stock of the current political situation, NCP General Secretary D P Tripathi said here.

After that, the working committee of the party will meet in Meghalaya capital Shillong. While the Congress has already officially said that it was ready for elections at any time, it is working towards the possibility of running a minority government as and when the Left withdraws support.

Drawing reference to the fact that the late P V Narasimha Rao also ran a minority government for several years, highly-placed Congress sources said that if a situation like that happened, Congress would lead a minority government.

‘Stigma’
“We will do that if it comes to that, as it is for us to decide when to go for polls,” the sources said, confident that the government would not fall even if a no-confidence motion was brought by the Opposition as the Left would not support that and draw the “stigma” of causing the downfall of a “secular” government.