BJP, Congress say results will be better than exit polls

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday said the results of the Lok Sabha polls on May 23 will be better than the prediction of exit polls which have favoured the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) returning to power.

The Congress, however, said that exit polls have gone wrong in the past and expressed confidence that the results will be better for the party than predictions made on Sunday.

The Aam Aadmi Party also said that exit polls had proved wrong in the past and the campaign of "TV scientists" to make the BJP win will fail.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, however, said that all exit polls could not be wrong.

"Every single exit poll can't be wrong! Time to switch off the TV, log out of social media & wait to see if the world is still spinning on its axis on the 23rd," he tweeted.

BJP spokesperson Bizay Sonkar Shastri said that his party will do better than the predictions of exit polls and it would win 300 seats on its own. The NDA, he said, will get 350 seats.

"This is an exit poll, not exact poll," he said.

Shastri said the Modi government had delivered on the ground and earned goodwill through its programmes such as construction of toilets and providing gas connections.

"It provided a stable economy, which has helped the middle class," he said.

"The big change is that political discussion has moved away from caste to development and delivery," he said.

BJP spokesperson G.V.L. Narasimha Rao said this election was "a slap for the abusive Opposition that made baseless charges and pervaded lies".

"A huge positive vote for the leadership of Narendra Modi who served country with unmatched dedication. People have rewarded good governance with an overwhelming public mandate," he said on Twitter.

He said Modi worked with a dedication for transformational change.

Congress spokesperson Rajeev Gowda said that exit polls are regularly wrong, and seat share and vote share predictions are very difficult to make.

"Fear is the key so a lot of people are hesitant to reveal their true choice. Let us wait for May 23, the results will be sufficiently different," he said.

Congress leader P.C. Chacko also said that the results will be different from exit polls and there were so many possibilities which will become clear on May 23.

AAP leader Sanjay Singh said in a tweet that if "TV scientists have any shame" they should remember the exit polls of 2004, 2013 and 2015 about Delhi as also predictions about recent Assembly elections in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

Asked for her reaction, CPI-M leader Brinda Karat said, "Let us wait for May 23."