Just two days after newly appointed Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, along with other party general secretaries, petitioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for extending UPA’s “landmark initiative” under he National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREG) to all the districts in the country, the Government on Friday announced the same.

However, despite the announcement, the implementation of the scheme all across the country will begin only in April next year with the Government asking the Rural Development Ministry to prepare for the same. This was decided during a high-level meeting chaired by the Prime Minister and attended by Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh on Friday.

The announcement, which followed a slew of other welfare schemes announced in the last few weeks by the Congress led UPA Government, further fuelled speculations about an early election.

Asked whether Rahul Gandhi’s petition to the PM came first or the decision to expand the scheme, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: “These are technicalities. Rahul has never claimed exclusive credit. He was part of the team and added momentum to the initiative. Let us cease to be doubting Thomases and look at the substance.”

However, Prasad thanked Rahul for his support. “Rahul’s support is a good thing,” he said. Meanwhile, Prasad evaded comment on whether the announcement for an expansion of the scheme in April next year was done keeping early polls in mind. “One can not predict the election timing. The decision to expand is well within the timeline as promised in the NREG Act which promised to expand the scheme to the entire country within five years from 2005,” he said.