<i>India heading for early parliamentary polls?</i>

Is India heading for parliamentary elections earlier than scheduled in early 2009? Political circles are abuzz with poll talk triggered by the federal budget presented by Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram which was as much of an economic statement as political.
The budget had goodies doled out for a cross-section of the society, the farmers, the salaried class and the manufacturing industry, with the centre piece, of course, being the over 16 billion dollar scheme waiving loans of small and marginal farmers reeling under drought and heavy indebtednness.
The Finance Minister sought to woo the salaried urban middle class by giving some income tax relief and slashing excise duty on small cars and two wheelers. The most talked about, however, is the farmer loan waiver.
Sonia Gandhi-led Congress, which is heading the country's ruling United Progressive Alliance, is out to reap electoral dividends of the economic populism of the budget. It is organizing a rally here on March 9 to project the party chief and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as pro-farmer.
Besides, Congress has asked all its units in the states to stir up a nation-wide campaign and Sonia's son Rahul Gandhi, who is the party's General Secretary, himself is undertaking a country-wide tour soon in moves seen by political analysts as the ruling party's build-up for the coming big electoral battle.
A series of elections to state legislatures are already lined up this year, including in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh ruled by main national opposition BJP where it will be pitted against Congress in a straight contest.
The assembly polls in the states and, of course, the parliamentary polls, assume significance for Congress as it had in recent months lost the democratic exercises in states like Punjab, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, analysts say.
Signalling Congress party's battle-readiness, senior party leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul, will address a series of rallies in several states amidst speculation that the general election could be advanced to sometime later this year instead of early next year as scheduled.
There is, however, realization among a section of Congressmen that one budget may not be enough to help the party's revival in big and electorally key states like Uttar Pradesh like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu where the party is out of power.
The farmers' loan waiver package in the budget has already seen a race among ruling alliance constituents to take the credit for the populist measure and analysts see this as a move to derive political and electoral mileage out of it.
Congress sources said that through the waiver of loans of famrers the party has successfully countered the opposition's sustained campaign over the past few weeks seeking to link the agrarian crisis to the Congress-led government's alleged neglect of the farm sector.
Congress sources also feel that the budget would help blunt the Left parties' frequent criticism of the government's alleged failure to arrest the inflation and pressure to junk a controversial civil nuclear deal with the United States.