BJP meets Pranab, seeks early elections

Advani submits a memorandum to the president on behalf of BJP MPs

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday called for early parliamentary elections to end what it said was the present atmosphere of 'uncertainty' in the country.

BJP leader L.K. Advani said the request was made to President Pranab Mukherjee.

'The way to end the present scenario of uncertainty in the country is that the Lok Sabha election, scheduled to be held in 2014, should be held in 2013 itself along with assembly elections,' Advani told the media.

Advani submitted a memorandum to the president on behalf of BJP MPs 'on the unprecedented crisis facing the Indian economy'.

'The free fall of the Indian rupee against the US dollar is only a symptom of the deeper malaise afflicting the Indian economy today,' said the memorandum.

Advani said the government was blaming everyone for the current crisis -- except itself.

'We have not seen this kind of a government where the present finance minister blames the earlier one (for the economic problems), who is not in a position to answer now,' he said.

The memorandum added that the country can ill-afford a government which is 'paralysed'.

'We have come to urge you, therefore, to end the prevailing uncertainty by advising this government to seek a fresh mandate at the earliest and not later than the state elections due in the next three months,' it said.

Assembly elections are due in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan before the end of November.

The memorandum said an atmosphere of gloom and doom prevails in the country.

'We shudder to think of the unbearable consequences all these (economic) developments are going to have on the common man.'