Congress spokesperson Jaipal Reddy on Tuesday said his party welcomed the government's decision to recommend the dissolution of the Lok Sabha on February 6.

"We had been talking about the NDA government's desire to go in for early polls ever since we held the Congress conclave in Shimla in July 2003," he said.

Asked why the Congress wanted early polls, Reddy said it was the only way to see the NDA government's exit.

Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Somnath Chatterjee said the government had trivialised every aspect of parliamentary democracy by setting up a date for Lok Sabha's dissolution.

"This corrupt government has no respect for Parliament," he said. "He has no respect for the President of India. If they wanted to dissolve the Lok Sabha they could have continued the last session for 15 more days or convened a special session 15 days before and given ample time to the parliamentarians to discuss vote-on-account. Now they are giving us only 15 minutes to do so. It has denigrated every aspect of the Indian democracy," he told rediff.com

He said his party welcomed early polls because this would ensure prompt exit of the government.