Projections about AIADMK will be proved wrong: Palaniswami

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Monday sought to make light of the exit polls suggesting a bad show by the AIADMK, saying he had himself proved wrong similar predictions of him losing in 2016.

Palaniswami exuded confidence that the party and its allies win would all the seats in the state and one in Puducherry, adding that said exit polls were more of "imposing of opinion".

"In 2016 (assembly election) also, such exit polls were done and they suggested that in Salem, the AIADMK will win only three seats and that even I will lose (from Edappadi seat in Salem)," he said. "But I won with a difference of 42,000 votes even as the AIADMK won 10 seats against the three (mentioned in the exit polls)."

"This is what exit polls are all about. They are imposing of opinion," the AIADMK leader said, claiming that the predictions would be proved wrong this time also.

Asked about the exit polls suggesting a good show by ally Bharatiya Janata Party across the country, Palaniswami said he was referring only to Tamil Nadu as the "AIADMK is not a national party, but a regional one".

"In Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK and alliance parties will win all 38 seats, besides the one in Puducherry. Further, our party candidates will win all the 22 seats where bypolls were held," he said. Election to the Vellore seat was rescinded after the recovery of a huge amount of cash.

The AIADMK's participation in the central cabinet can be thought about only after the results are declared. The true picture will be known on May 23, Palaniswami said.

Palaniswami accused the DMK of changing colours according to the times, he added.

State BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan had recently claimed that M K Stalin was in talks with the saffron party, drawing a sharp rebuke from the DMK chief.