Possibility of early polls this year: Venkaiah Naidu

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu Sunday said that there was a possibility of early elections in the country.

"The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government was seriously thinking of going for an early election after presenting a pro-people budget so that it can fetch votes," Naidu told reporters in Hyderabad.

Alleging that the people of the country were fed up of the "inefficient" performance of the UPA government, the BJP leader said there was an "anti-wave for the Congress across the country as it had adopted anti-people and anti-farmers policies resulting in prices skyrocketing, besides feeling insecure."

Referring to efforts by Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and others to consolidate a Third Front, Naidu said, "Third Front was only a mirage and it was a failed experiment."

An alternative force cannot be formed without the leadership of a national party as the parties which do not have proper strength cannot provide any leadership, as we had experienced in the short tenures of former Prime Ministers H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral, he said.

He asserted that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance would emerge as a strong alternative to Congress.

The party's National Executive meeting would be held on March 1, followed by the National Council meeting on March 2 and 3 at New Delhi, he said.

The party would formulate a strategy in view of indication of early elections in the country, besides evolving a future course of action after deliberation on the present political situation, he said.

Naidu had Saturday in Chennai also hinted at the possibility of an early election where he had said that, "We have reports that the Congress leadership is thinking of early elections to the Lok Sabha and they may be held in 2013 after the end of the Monsoon session (of Parliament). That's the reliable information we have got."