By IANS,
New Delhi: The outcome of the assembly elections in five states in November-December will have an impact on the Lok Sabha elections next year, a Congress leader said Saturday.
“Basically assembly polls are fought over local issues,” Rashid Aliv of the Congress told IANS.
“However, as these elections are so close to the Lok Sabha polls, somewhere these might have an impact on the parliamentary elections,” he said.
Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram will vote between Nov 11 and Dec 4. All the votes will be counted Dec 8.
While the Congress rules Delhi, Rajasthan and Mizoram, the Bharatiya Janata Party governs Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The main battle in the states will be between the Congress and BJP.
In Delhi, however, the Aam Aadmi Party of activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal has emerged as a key but untested force.
The BJP agreed that the state elections “are certainly important”.
“Though state issues will be imperative, but the issue of corruption of the central government and bad governance will also have a huge impact on the polls,” Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, incharge of central election management of the BJP, told IANS.
Communist Party of India’s D. Raja agreed that corruption would be a major issue in the assembly polls.
“And since the assembly elections will be so close to the general election, the result will give a boost to the party that performs well,” he said.
But he warned that the outcome may not reflect the national mood per se.
“The result in Rajasthan will have nothing to do with Tamil Nadu and the Delhi outcome will not affect Kerala.”