Maya, Rajnath see early polls

Don't fritter away 'anti-Cong' mood: BJP tells partymen Mayawati said, "Jo haalaat chal rahein hain lag raha hain ki samay se pehle chunaav ho sakte hain (as the situation is right now, it seems polls can be held before schedule)." Venkat Parsa New Delhi: After Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, another UPA ally, BSP supremo Mayawati, has now predicted early Lok Sabha elections. Mayawati said, "Jo haalaat chal rahein hain lag raha hain ki samay se pehle chunaav ho sakte hain (as the situation is right now, it seems polls can be held before schedule)." On the same day, BJP president Rajnath Singh, addressing his party top-brass, has also predicted early elections and said "the party is ready for polls." The BJP top-brass met on Sunday to chalk out poll strategy. The BJP central office-bearers, State unit presidents and BJP General Secretaries (Organisation) at the Centre and in the States assembled to work out the strategy. In the morning session, the political situation was assessed and in the afternoon session, the organisational issues were taken up. In his opening remarks, Rajnath Singh said the popular mood favours the BJP, as there is anger against the Congress. For the BJP, he said, the twin assets are good governance and the organisation. He also emphasised on the need for re-energizing the booth committees. Cautioning the senior leaders not to speak out-of-turn, he said the spokespersons should be allowed to do the talking to the media and the senior leaders should avoid going to the media. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley presented his assessment. Out of the 260 seats won by the UPA in the General Election in 2009, 160 seats were won in 6 States of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana. In these 6 States, the Congress faces a certain rout now. In Andhra Pradesh, the party has messed up its stand on Telangana and YSR Congress Party of Y S Jaganmohan Reddy is on the rise. In Tamil Nadu, the Congress has been isolated on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue. In West Bengal, the Congress won with the help of the Trinamool Congress and after the break-up of the alliance, the Congress is bound to face rout. In Rajasthan and Haryana, the party has lost its popular base and in Uttar Pradesh, both the SP and BSP are opposed to it. With anti-incumbency, crumbling alliances, confused leadership and confusion over who should be the leader � Rahul Gandhi or Manmohan Singh � the Congress is bound to face defeat, he said. BJP Parliamentary Party chairman L K Advani said the biggest assets of the party are the good governance and development model. Advani identified three issues of inflation, corruption and black money as the issues that will dominate the campaign. He exhorted the party to go to polls with the trident of good governance, prudent politics and ideal image. In 2004, the BJP lost because of over-confidence, he said and asked the party workers to be confident, but not over-confident. Former BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi presented an overview of how the Vajpayee Government had cordial relations with the countries in the neighbourhood, but the UPA Government has lost that advantage. Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj corruption and price-rise are emotive issues and she predicted change of Government at the Centre. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi exhorted the party workers to take to an aggressive campaign against the Congress, which is down because of rampant corruption, runaway inflation and total mismanagement. He advised the party to take resort to social media network to reach out to the new voters. "The days of the Congress are numbered and I is bound to be defeated, whenever elections are held," he declared.