| 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
(Data for the 1999 Lok Sabha elections) Key Dates
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Vajpayee sets the poll clock ticking
Dissolve Lok Sabha on February 6: Cabinet
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First Published: Jan 28 2004 | 12:00 AM IST
