Guna (Madhya Pradesh): Seeking to pre-empt any post-poll criticism, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley today (Nov 12) asserted that the December 1 Assembly elections in five States including Madhya Pradesh is not a referendum on the performance of the Vajpayee Government at the Centre.

"In fact, the coming Assembly elections are going to be a referendum on the performance of the incumbent Governments in these States and not that of the Centre," he told reporters soon after party general secretary Shivraj Singh Chauhan filed his nomination from Chief Minister Digvijay Singh's Raghogarh constituency at the collector's office in Guna.

Jaitley said the outcome of the Assembly elections would not have any impact on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government at the Centre.

The party had earlier described the coming polls as a "semi-final" to the "final" Lok Sabha polls.

He said since Raghogarh was the home constituency of the Chief Minister, BJP has deputed Opposition leader in Bihar Assembly Sushil Kumar Modi and former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde to the area on a "special mission".

"One of their main tasks would be to check possible misuse of official machinery and irregularities during the entire election process," he said.

PTI