Govt's MSP move a political gimmick for simultaneous polls, says Congress

The MSP increase in paddy will have an electoral bearing in paddy growing areas, including UP, Bihar, Odisha, Haryana, etc

The Opposition, led by the Congress, termed the Union Cabinet’s decision on Wednesday to increase minimum support price (MSP) of 14 crops a political gimmick, and read it as a portent that the Narendra Modi government could be exploring to hold Lok Sabha polls simultaneously with assembly polls to several states.

Lok Sabha elections are scheduled for April-May 2019. Assembly elections to key north Indian states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, along with northeastern state of Mizoram, are slated for November-December. But the Modi government is keen to hold assembly elections to these states, and some more, simultaneously with