Ready to face Lok Sabha polls any time: Congress

The Congress on Thursday said it was ready to face the Lok Sabha elections any time.

Reacting to reports that the Narendra Modi government might be planning for early General Elections, Congress Spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said the Election Commission must have been sounded out by the government on the matter but the Congress had no knowledge of it.

"The Election Commission has a constitutional obligation to conduct free and fair elections and be ready to conduct elections on an appropriate notice from the government. So the EC must have been sounded out by the current Bharatiya Janata Party-led government that they were going to advance parliamentary elections. The Congress has no such knowledge," he said.

"However, we are prepared to face elections any time," he added.

Surjewala said the country's people are "fed up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's jumlas (pet phrases)" and the way his government is going about "decimating jobs, businesses as also trade and agriculture" in the country.

"So, I think the people will give a befitting reply, just like they did in 2004 during the 'India Shinning' campaign to the (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee government if elections are advanced. People are waiting for General Elections to happen so that they can actually ask Modi-ji as to where the 'acchhe din' (good days) promised by him are," the Congress leader said.

On Wednesday, Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat said the Election Commission will be ready by September 2018 to hold simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

--IANS

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