Most exit polls Sunday forecast another term for Prime Minister NarendraModi, with some of them projecting that BJP-led NDA will get more than 300 seats to comfortably cross the majority mark of 272 in the LokSabha.
However, a number of exit polls predicted big losses for theBJP in Uttar Pradesh, where it had won 71 seats in 2014, but the saffron partyappeared to make major gains in other states.
Times Now telecast two exit polls giving the NDA 296 and 306seats, while projecting 126 and 132 for the Congress-led UPA.
The CVoter-Republic exit poll has forecast 287 and 128 seatsfor the NDA and UPA respectively.
However, ABP News-Nielsen and Neta-NewsX predicted that theruling alliance may fall short of a majority as they respectively gave it 267and 242 seats. ABP News and NewsX predicted 127 and 164 seats respectively forthe UPA.
Elections to 542 seats of the LokSabha ended Sunday. TheElection Commission has deferred election for Vellore in Tamil Nadu overallegations of misuse of money power.
The counting of votes is slated for May 23.
The CNN News18-Ipsos exit poll said the BJP-led alliance canwin a whopping 336 seats with the saffron party getting a majority on its own.It projected only 46 seats for the Congress and 82 for its allies.
In 2014, the NDA had won 336 seats and the Congress 44. TheBJP had notched up its maiden majority by bagging 282 seats.
Several exit polls predicted that the SP-BSP alliance islikely to trump the BJP in the country’s politically most crucial state UttarPradesh. The BJP had won 71 and its ally Apna Dal two of its 80 seats in 2014.
The CVoter-Republic forecast gave the grand alliance in UP40 seats against 38 for the NDA, while the Jan Ki Baat said the NDA may win46-57 seats against 15-29 of the SP-BSP combine.
ABP News predicted a huge loss for the BJP in the state,saying it may win only 22 seats while the opposition alliance may emergevictorious in 56 constituencies.
In West Bengal, CVoter-Republic and ABP said the BJP may win11 and 16 (of the 42 seats) respectively, a big improvement on its tally of twoin 2014.
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool CongresssupremoMamata Banerjee dismissed the exit polls as a “gossip” and agameplan to “replace” EVMs.
“I don’t trust Exit Poll gossip. The game plan is tomanipulate or replace thousands of EVMs through this gossip. I appeal to allOpposition parties to be united, strong and bold. We will fight this battletogether,” she tweeted.
News channel ABP said the BJP in Odisha may win nine seats.It had won only one in 2014.
Exit polls in the country have had mixed record on accuracyand quite often their projections have been way off the actual results.
However, Congress ally and National Conference leader OmarAbdullah, said every single exit poll cannot be wrong. “Time to switch offthe TV, log out of social media & wait to see if the world is stillspinning on its axis on the 23rd (May),” he tweeted. Some social media users pointed out thatelection results in Australia proved most psephologists and news polls wrong.