The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, New Delhi

The leader of India's ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, has asked senior members to prepare for elections, her party said Sunday, in a fresh indication the country is headed for early polls.

Gandhi discussed preparations for a string of local and national elections at a meeting with senior party leaders in New Delhi over the weekend, a Congress spokesman said.

General elections are due by May 2009 at the latest, but there has been widespread speculation that the party may be forced to hold them in the winter months around the end of the year.

The comments also came as the party's communist allies continued to pile pressure on the government not to press ahead with a controversial nuclear accord with the United States. "This meeting was about poll preparations. The Lok Sabha (parliament's lower house) elections were also discussed," said Congress official Janardan Dwivedi.

The Congress said members were asked to work on campaign strategies and launch programmes to create awareness about the government's welfare schemes.

Local elections are due this year in several key states, including Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has so far failed to win support for the nuclear agreement from his left-wing coalition partners, who have threatened to bring down the government over the issue.

On Wednesday, the two sides met but the talks failed to end the deadlock.

The main leftwing Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on Sunday reiterated its threat and launched a fresh attack on the government over rising prices. Inflation is currently at a 13-year high of over 11 percent.

The nuclear pact, concluded in 2006, aims to bring India into the loop of global atomic commerce. But the communists say it will draw New Delhi too close to Washington.

"In case the government decides to go ahead with such a harmful agreement, which has no majority support in parliament, the CPI-M will withdraw support to the government in concert with the Left parties," party general secretary Prakash Karat said.