Hinting that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will go in for simultaneous polls along with general elections, the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Chavan on Thursday claimed that the Assembly will be dissolved on February 28 after the budget is tabled.

The BJP was quick to slam Mr. Chavan saying he was daydreaming.

Addressing a rally of party workers in Aurangabad on Thursday night, Mr. Chavan said the State government is planning for simultaneous elections in 2019. “The Assembly will be dissolved immediately after the Budget is tabled this month. All Congress activists must remain on hand as the possibility of state polls could be the reality,” he said.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis responded to this at an event in Palghar on Friday by calling Mr. Chavan “jobless”. “Since the Opposition is unemployed, it seems, Ashok Chavan has taken up the profession of astrology. It seems he is in a hurry to retain the Opposition benches and therefore wants to face Assembly elections early,” he said.

Mr. Fadnavis claimed that his government would finish its full term and there is nothing to worry about the stability of his government. “The Assembly will not be dissolved. There is no question of calling for early polls,” he added. Mr. Fadnavis took charge as head of the coalition government on October 2014.

Mr. Chavan’s statement comes amid speculations that the BJP’s central leadership could go in for simultaneous polls in States ruled by it to cash in on the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats, the second highest after Uttar Pradesh. While Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have announced that they will be contesting the elections as an united front, the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena coalition is yet to finalise their alliance with Sena sticking to its stand to fight polls independently.