The ruling Congress is anticipating general elections around March at the earliest, with the party leadership analysing that once the government starts negotiating with the IAEA before the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) meeting, expected on November 11, the Left could pull the plug on the UPA government leading to the start of the poll process.

Since the government has to formalise the safeguards deal with the IAEA before the NSG can take up the 123 Agreement, and since the NSG meeting is expected to be held on November 11, the government-IAEA agreement would have to be put in place latest by October end, highly-placed government sources said.

“And if the Left sticks to its rhetoric, it would withdraw support once the negotiations with IAEA starts. So, we can expect that to happen around mid-October, which means that if the government wants to go for polls, the earliest it can happen is around March as at least four months are required for the Election Commission to implement the process,” the sources said.

The Congress sources also confirmed the thought process, indicating that decisions like the one announced on Friday to extend the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to almost the whole of the country were aimed at harnessing the voters. “You can expect several such announcements in the near future,” a senior AICC leader quipped, adding, “Even the Prime Minister is in the poll mode.

Ready always

Officially, the ruling party refused to take the bait of questions related to whether the extension of NREGA scheme meant the Congress was in election mode, with AICC spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi saying, “We are ready for elections 24X7, and extension of such schemes are an ongoing process to fulfil the aam aadmi commitments of the UPA government.”

While the Opposition has already criticised the extension of the scheme just two days after AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi lead a party delegation to the Prime Minister making the demand, the Congress was very careful not to project it as the government’s response in haste to the Amethi MP’s move.

“Rahul Gandhi has never claimed exclusive credit (for the extension of the scheme)… it is all collective work of the party,” Mr Singhvi said.

Defending the decision to extend the scheme even though earlier the Finance Ministry had expressed reservations over it citing fund crunch, he said: “Resource crunch is only in the mind of our opponents, who are understandably jealous. The Finance Minister has personally attended to the finance angle”.