Expecting midterm polls in 2008: Advani

Ahmedabad, Dec 16: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)leader L K Advani today said midterm polls to the Lok Sabha now seems imminent as there was " instability at the Centre". " We should be ready for the Lok Sabha polls in 2008 instead of 2009," he said after casting his vote at a booth in a municipal corporation school in Shahpur constituency.

Expressing the hope that the BJP will emerge winner in both the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections, Mr Advani said a BJP wave is slowly engulfing the country. After Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Punjab, Himachal will also go in for a change and will vote for BJP.

In Gujarat there is no doubt that the Narendra Modi government will come back to power with a thumping majority, he said. Dismissing the dissidence factor that rankled the BJP just before the polls he said every party faces such problems .

Time and again, when even the Congress said "At the time of elections of its present president (when a breakaway group formed the NCP), no damage was done to the party. Here also no dissidence can break the BJP, he said.

Earlier, the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) at the booth where Mr Advani cast his vote falled due to a technical problem for 30 minutes but it was repaired later.

Tight security arrangements have been made in the city to ensure the people cast their vote peacefully. A large number of people were queued up to exercise their franchise at the polling booths despite the chill in the air.

UNI