BJP foresees early LS polls

Chennai, Jun 16 (UNI) Fresh from its victory in the Karnataka Assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today foresaw early elections to the Lok Sabha and said it was open for an alliance with any party other than the Congress and the Left.

Talking to reporters here, BJP Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu predicted that the Lok Sabha polls would be held in November and that the party was prepared to face it.

''Our party has been gearing up for the elections by holding various state-level meetings and identifying the right candidates,'' he added.

Mr Naidu said the BJP had chalked out a 30-point programme to face the polls and all the preparatory works would be completed by August.

Mounting a scathing attack on the UPA Government at the Centre, he alleged that the Centre was not able to take any effective measure to tackle the challenges the country was facing now.

''The Central Government's decision to waive off farm loans had not benefitted farmers in any form,'' he charged.

Referring to the BJP's victory in 12 of the 16 States in the last couple of years, Mr Naidu claimed that the morale among the Congress workers was shattered following a string of defeats, whereas the mood among the BJP partymen was buoyant and upbeat and they were raring to go for the elections.

''Non-availability of fertilisers, spiralling rise in prices of essential commodities, fuel price hike and rising inflation exposed the insensitiveness of the Centre towards people's issue,'' he charged and dared the Left parties to withdraw their support to the UPA Government.

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