New Delhi, Jan 08: Lok Sabha polls ahead of schedule appear almost certain with the possibility of it being held in late April or early May and the government going for a vote-on-account budget by January or early February, BJP sources said. The government announcing a slew of tax sops this evening is a virtual indication of the government going in for early polls and going for a vote-on-account, the sources said.

The broad outlines of the pre-ponement of polls and the vote-on-account was discussed at a meeting of top BJP leaders at Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's residence this morning, the sources said. Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Law Minister Arun Jaitley, parliamentary affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu and party general secretary Pramod Mahajan attended the meeting.


The issues had also figured at a meeting Advani and Naidu had with the BJP general secretaries later in the day at the party's Central office here to finalise the agenda for the party's national executive meeting.

Bureau Report