Vajpayee sets the poll clock ticking

Dissolve Lok Sabha on February 6: Cabinet

The 13th Lok Sabha will be dissolved on February 6 and general elections are likely in the first week of April.

After a Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee drove to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, met President APJ Abdul Kalam, and recommended that the House be dissolved immediately after the vote-on-account, to be tabled on February 3 in the Lok Sabha, was passed by Parliament.

Briefing newsmen, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the Cabinet had recommended dissolution after the vote-on-account had been passed. A new session, she said, was rendered unnecessary because Parliament had not previously been prorogued.

Therefore, the 13th Lok Sabha would be dissolved after the passage of the vote-on-account. This decision was taken by the Cabinet after the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani were consulted.

Swaraj ruled out any fresh tax proposals in the vote-on-account on February 3 but asserted that it was within the government's powers to announce new schemes and policies before the dissolution of the House.

While presenting their votes-on-account, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh and Railway Minister Nitish Kumar would make speeches for 10-15 minutes.

The government has thus set the stage for elections in the first week of April.

Today's decision, according to ministers who attended Cabinet today, was taken because the government wanted the initiative for the passage of the vote-on-account to remain with it.

The Congress and the Left parties had, according to the government, planned elaborate filibustering to stall the vote-on-account and had even considered petitioning the President to prove that the vote was illegitimate.

Worried that the initiative for an early election might slip out of its hands, the government decided to present a fait accompli to the Opposition.

Normally, the government would have conveyed to the president information about the passage of the vote-on-account, after it had been passed.

However, rather than risk unpredictable actions by the president""known to have returned legislation to the House after querying it""the government decided to let its decision be known to him.

"The government has decided to dissolve the House... that is why I am standing before you" said Swaraj.

India's vital statistics

• Constituencies: 543
• Candidates: 4,648
• Electorate: 619.56 million
• Votes cast: 371.67 million

(Data for the 1999 Lok Sabha elections) Key Dates

• Parliament reconvenes: Jan 29
• Interim Rail Budget: Jan 30
• Vote-on-account: Feb 3-4
• Parliament adjourns: Feb 5
• Lok Sabha dissolution: Feb 6
• President's proclamation: around Feb 13
• Notification for elections by CEC: Feb-end
• First phase of general election: Early April
• New govt formation: April-end