RAGHUVANSH PRASAD SINGH: I come from the Samajwadi stream of Indian politics, the followers of the politics of Lohia. When the Jaiprakash Narain movement began in 1975, we were very active. We were dismissed from college and then got reinstated after the Janata Party came to power. And I got a ticket for the 1977 Assembly elections. I became a state minister under Karpoori Thakurji and I was in the Bihar Assembly till 1996. I came to Parliament for the first time in 1996, during the United Front rule. God knows when the next elections will happen, but it seems that you people in the media are in a hurry to have elections. Elections are never in our control; no sitting member wants elections without completing the full term. In fact, theoretically, the Election Commission will anyway be free to conduct elections any time after December 2008, which is well within six months of the schedule. To those who have fought several midterm elections, it’s almost the same. Only those who are defeated in an election want an early election.

VARGHESE K. GEORGE: Your leader (Lalu Prasad Yadav) initially backed the nuclear deal. But now, faced with prospects of early elections, he has started saying, ‘We do not want early elections.’

Right from the beginning his position was that no one wants elections. And that’s true. But if an early election looks imminent, how can a politician say, ‘We’re not ready.’ Everyone will say, ‘We are ready for polls.’

... contd.