London: Asserting that the upcoming Assembly elections would be fought on issues concerning the states going to polls, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) General Secretary Pramod Mahajan has said they would be a test for incumbent Congress Chief Ministers and not for Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Mahajan also expressed confidence that the BJP will win in four of the five states going to Assembly polls.

"Definitely, the BJP will defeat the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi. In Mizoram, we are still a small party, and we will definitely enter the Assembly there," Mahajan told BBC Hindi Special Programme Aapki Baat BBC Ke Saath broadcast on last night (November 9).

He said in all the five states going to polls in the next three weeks, it would be issues concerning the states on which the elections would be fought.

"This is a test for Digvijay Singh, (Chief Minister of MP), Ashok Gehlot (Chief Minister of Rajasthan), Ajit Jogi (Chief Minister of Chattisgarh) and Sheila Dikshit (Chief Minister of Delhi). This is not a test for Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee."

Asked why BJP has given up Article 370, construction of Ram temple and other major issues, Mahajan said, "We are ready to abrogate Article 370 from the Indian Constitution, but it requires two-third majority, which we do not have. Common Civil Code is the need of the hour. It is a necessity. But except us there is nobody in Parliament who is prepared for it."

Mahajan claimed that during the last five years, the progress made by India economically, socially and at the international level, would ensure the BJP victory in the next Lok Sabha elections.

As far as the Centre is concerned, "the development has been unprecedented during tenure of Vajpayee Government. The foreign exchange reserve is $100 billion. For the first time we are returning the debts of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

"Earlier 2 lakh people had mobiles, now two crore of them have it. But this election is not being fought on the performance of the Centre. It is being fought on state issues.

Though these Assembly elections would not have any impact on the Lok Sabha elections, "we would like to be victorious in these, as we want to be in the Lok Sabha elections."

When a listener from Sambalpur in Orissa referred to the confidence expressed by Ajit Jogi in sweeping the polls in Chattisgarh, Mahajan said, "Jogi has never won an election in Chhattisgarh. He was not even a member of the state Assembly when he became the Chief Minister. He was parachuted to become the CM.

"In our view, in the Assembly of 90 seats, we have either won 80 seats at some time, and we were behind in about five-seven seats.

"If you look carefully, the boat of Ajit Jogi is rocking in Chattisgarh, and finally he would find it difficult to pull it through even for his own seat."

PTI