Exit polls: India opposition rejects BJP exit poll lead

(FASTNEWS|COLOMBO) – India is in full election mode: voting began on 11 April, and the final ballot will be cast on 19 May with results out on 23 May. Every day, the UTV News will be bringing you all the latest updates on the twists and turns of the world’s largest democracy.

Opposition leaders dismiss exit poll results

What happened?

Opposition leaders have dismissed the exit polls, which suggest that the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is on course to win the general election.

Four exit polls, all of which were released on Sunday, predict big wins for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The polls say the coalition could win anywhere between 280 and 315 seats, far more than the opposition Congress party.

The BJP welcomed the prediction and many of its leaders congratulated the party workers’ efforts on social media.

Why does this matter?

Exit polls have to be taken with caution because they have been wrong in the past – a fact that opposition leaders were quick to point out.

The BJP was locked in a fierce electoral battle with the Congress and a clutch of regional parties in various states. But the trends show that the opposition’s poll strategy has failed.

The most surprising prediction has come from the bellwether state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), which sends 80 MPs to parliament – more than any other.

So the state always holds the key to who forms the government.

Analysts had predicted that powerful regional parties would defeat the BJP this time around – in 2014, the party won 71 seats.

But most of the exit polls suggest that the party will perform much better than expected in UP. Only one poll – the Nielsen-ABP poll – predicts that the BJP could lose as many as 51 seats in UP to regional parties. This is also the only poll that predicts that the BJP-led alliance could fall short of an outright majority. (Courtesy – Foreign Media)