Divestment Minister Arun Shourie said on Thursday that early elections would help speed up the process of privatisation.

The Divestment Development: Complete Coverage

"If elections are held early it will help the process," Shourie said adding that the argument that divestment would hurt us in elections would not be valid.

Asked if divestment of 10 per cent stake each in Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Gas Authority of India Ltd could be affected by early elections, he replied in the negative adding on the contrary if response was good to these issues then the sceptics would call it a populist measure.

Asked about the cases pending in the Supreme Court challenging divestment, he said, "We are all for complete reliance on judgement... more petitions will give the court the occasion to evaluate more constitutional angles".

On the issue of ONGC and GAIL, he said we would approach the Group of Ministers only if "we encounter some problem".

Asked whether allocation of shares in these two issues would be the same as in Maruti, he said, "I do not think a forecast could be made at his juncture."

Shourie said if hypothetically the issue was of Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) then earmarking 60 per cent for retail investors would mean an investment of Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) and wondered if such investment from individual investors was possible.

He did not comment on reports relating to possibility of splitting ONGC shares but said that allotment in lots of 10 or any other means in the interests of small investors for ensuring their maximum participation would be looked into as it would give the government greater resources.