Though party President Sonia Gandhi has not taken a final call in this regard, many top leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh favour the November-December schedule.

If the elections are held on schedule, India must complete polls by April 2008.
The biggest factor for Gandhi in determining the timetable for the election is inflation. As the inflation has shown signs of stabilizing during the last few weeks, the party president and her managers are now contemplating holding early elections.

After presenting a please-all general Budget in February, the Congress was mainly waiting for the soaring rates of inflation to come down. Many of the party managers, including Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, had conveyed to Gandhi that the season's bumper harvest would help curb prices.

Food prices are under control and international crude prices too have started to decline. These factors are giving renewed confidence to the Congress brass to go for an early election.

However, while a section of the party favours advancing the Lok Sabha elections to November or December, the allies, especially Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav is against the move.

As part of its strategy to keep options open for fixing an advantageous election schedule, the Congress has also pushed back the dates for the next session of the 14th Lok Sabha. A combined monsoon and winter session of Parliament will be called between October 17 and November 21. According to the rule, the gap between two Parliament sessions cannot exceed six months. A normal monsoon session in July-August would have forced the government to advance the general election even before December.

The final authority to decide on the election dates is the Election Commission and if it has its way, then the Lok Sabha polls would be held in April-May. However, if the government wants to advance the elections, the prime minister can dissolve the Lok Sabha and force the EC to advance the polls. (EON).