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Assembly poll outcome does not affect numbers at the Centre, says BJP

The outcome of the assembly elections would not have any impact on the A B Vajpayee government as it ''does not affect the numbers'' at the Centre, Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman K L Sharma said today.

''There is no question of any mid-term poll,'' Sharma told the media at the party's daily briefing.

Asked about Vajpayee's reported statement in Lucknow yesterday to the contrary," he said he had since talked to the prime minister about it.

State elections and the central government were two different things, and even in the past no government at the Centre had resigned in the wake of adverse results in assembly polls, Sharma contended.

Further, if the exit polls -- which had predicted the defeat of the BJP in Delhi and Rajasthan and that of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram -- turned out to be true, it would only confirm that anti-incumbency factor was the deciding factor in the elections.

Even in that case, the Congress was the loser as it had been voted out in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram, which together had 360 seats against a total of 270 seats in Rajasthan and Delhi, he said.

The outcome of the elections would be discussed at the level of the party as well as the coordination committee of the allies after the official announcement of the results, he said.

Sharma said the party had demanded repoll in 70 polling booths -- 19 booths in Madhya Pradesh, 27 in Rajasthan, 23 in Bihar and one in Assam.

UNI

Assembly Election '98

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