India set for early general election

India’s ruling party has recommended early national elections and the prime minister wants them completed by April, the party president said today.

Venkaiah Naidu made the announcement after a two-day meeting in Hyderabad of the executive committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Hindu nationalist group that heads India’s 17-party coalition government.

The party wants a general elections to be held months before they are due in September because the government is riding a popularity wave with the economy strengthening and resumed peace talks with nuclear-armed neighbour Pakistan in the offing.

“There is a feel good factor in every walk of public life,” Naidu said. “It is natural to think we should have a fresh mandate so we can march even more confidently toward our goal of making India a developed nation by 2020.”

National elections usually take about six weeks in India, as they are staggered from state to state to allow elections and security workers to move to each area as it votes.

The independent Election Commission would set the date for the elections, and has said voter rolls would be ready by the first week of March. The Commission has said electronic voting machines will replace paper ballots at all polling stations.