“PREFIXED” EXIT POLLS HINT MODI-LED ALLIANCE WINNING INDIA’S GENERAL ELECTIONS

Sun 02 June 2024:

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance is projected to win an emphatic majority in the general election, TV exit polls say, suggesting the right-wing party would do better than expected by most analysts.

Most exit polls on Saturday projected the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could win a two-thirds majority in the 543-member lower house of parliament, where 272 is needed for a simple majority.

The opposition dismissed the exit polls, and before their publication, called them “prefixed” following a meeting at the residence of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi earlier on Saturday.

The exit polls projected over 350 seats to the ruling National Democratic Alliance out of 543 parliamentary seats in India.

The official vote count will be held on June 4.

The opposition alliance INDIA, led by the Indian National Congress, was projected to win less than 200 seats in the elections.

Voting for the last 57 parliamentary constituencies was held on Saturday.

The last phase marks a “grand finish to the world’s largest polling marathon” that began April 19, the election commission said earlier.

The polling has been held for 486 out of 543 parliamentary seats in the country.

The election is primarily a battle between the National Democratic Alliance, led by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, and the opposition alliance INDIA.

After the voting ended on Saturday, the opposition alliance claimed that they would win 295 seats, while Modi’s party said it would exceed 370 seats in the June 4 results.

Exit polls, which are conducted by polling agencies, have a patchy record in India as they have often got the outcome wrong, with analysts saying it is a challenge to get them right in the large and diverse country.

Most opposition parties accuse India’s main news channels of being biased in favour of Modi, charges the channels have denied. They also say exit polls in India are mostly unscientific.

“This is a government exit poll, this is Narendra Modi’s exit poll,” Supriya Shrinate, the Congress’s social media head, told the ANI news agency. “We have a sense of how many seats we are winning.”

Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which governs the national capital territory of Delhi told the Press Trust of India the exit polls are “of the government and of the BJP”.

“Exit polls always show the BJP winning. In the meeting [of INDIA bloc], leaders have said that 295 seats are coming to INDIA alliance and we will form a government,” he said.

Nearly one billion people were eligible to vote in the seven-phase election that began on April 19 and was held in scorching summer heat in many parts.

The Election Commission will count votes on June 4 and results are expected the same day.

A victory for Modi, 73, will make him only the second prime minister after independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru to win three consecutive terms.

Many in the prime minister’s constituency of Varanasi – which went to the polls on Saturday – said they were excited about the prospect of his return to power.

But Janesar Akhtar, a Muslim clothesmaker working in Varanasi’s famed embroidery workshops, said the BJP’s sectarian campaigning was an unfortunate distraction from India’s chronic unemployment problems.

“Workshops here are closing down and the Modi government has been busy with the politics of temples and mosques,” the 44-year-old said. “He is supposed to give us jobs and not tensions.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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