There are indications here that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who has called a meeting of his Cabinet tomorrow, plans to recommend the dissolution of the state Assembly in the next few days and hope for elections in early February, eight months before schedule.Naidu is expected to clear pending matters tomorrow and announce various sops. He has already announced several populist measures over the last few days including more and easily available ration cards and new schemes for women, OBCs and students.The BJP leadership has urged him to wait until the results of the five state polls next month. Its reasoning: depending on the outcome, it can decide on Lok Sabha elections which could then take place along with the Andhra assembly polls.But Naidu’s traditional stand has been that state elections be delinked from general elections. While he plans to align with the BJP, he does not want to carry the baggage of incumbency which the BJP faces at the Centre.Simultaneous elections also give an advantage to the BJP which will then demand a certain number of Lok Sabha seats in return for support to the TDP in the Assembly elections.Naidu wants to encash the ‘‘sympathy’’ that the Oct 1 assasination attempt generated in the state.On November 2, when Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and BJP chief Venkaiah Naidu met the Andhra CM, he is said to have insisted on early elections in the state first and urged them to help him return to power. Left with few options, the BJP leaders argued that the firepower of the Congress would be concentrated on Andhra Pradesh whereas this would be spread out with simultaneous polls. But Naidu hopes that early polls will give him the added advantage of catching the Congress unprepared. And that the ‘‘sympathy factor’’ will help him counter drought, farmers’ suicides and the Naxalite problem.
