While exit polls brought cheer to the BJP and its allies on the last day of the month-long election, the ruling Congress and others rejected the survey results citing past experiences of vast differences between the exit and final results.
With the BJP-led NDA projected to form the Government at the Centre with various exit polls giving between 249 and 340 seats to the Narendra Modi-led grouping, the BJP said the people of the country have now rejected the policy of “arrogance, dynasty and inheritance” and advised the Congress to “reconcile” to sitting in the Opposition.
Just four days ahead of counting of votes for lok Sabha elections, the BJP lauded the voters of the country for coming out in large numbers to elect a “stable, effective and decisive” Government. “This is an election of hope and not of emotion. The policy of arrogance, dynasty and inheritance is being rejected by the people of India and the politics of initiative, hard work and accomplishments based upon the record of good governance is being rewarded by the people,” BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
On the other hand, the Congress sought to absolve its lead campaigner Rahul Gandhi of any blame saying it would be a collective responsibility whatever may be the result of the lok Sabha election. “Rahul Gandhi is not in the Government. He is the number two leader in the party. Sonia Gandhi is the president and naturally there is local leadership. So it is all collective,” party general secretary Shakeel Ahmed said. He was asked whether Rahul, who led the party in the elections, or party chief Sonia Gandhi should be held responsible if the results are not up to the expectations of the party.
Seeking to dismiss exit and opinion polls, Ahmed said that they have been proved wrong in the 2004 and 2009 elections and the party would wait for the actual results on May 16. Earlier the party decided that it would not participate in the exit poll programmes scheduled to be telecast by several news channels on Monday evening. “Keeping with its tradition, the Congress will not participate in exit poll programmes,” Ahmed said adding that in one such exit poll last time, there was a gap of 68 seats between the predicted tally and the actual number of seats won by the party.
The Samajwadi Party also rejected the exit polls and said they are doctored and manipulated to suit certain interests and this time it is Narendra Modi. When asked about the exit poll predictions showing poor performance of SP in Uttar Pradesh, party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said his party did not believe in these polls.“In the last Assembly election also the exit polls did not show that the SP will get majority but we got majority,” he pointed out, and added, “Exit polls are doctored. They have influence of Narendra Modi.”
Claiming that the people had voted in favour of Samajwadi Party in the 2014 lok Sabha election, Chaudhary reiterated that the next political dispensation at the Centre would be a secular Government led by the Mulayam Singh Yadav.“The communal forces would get a drubbing in this election. The Congress has already lost the faith of the people, who have voted in favour of Samajwadi Party because of its performance in Uttar Pradesh,” Chaudhary said in a written statement on Monday.
He said that BJP leaders led by its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had spread lies about the Samajwadi Party Government. “The BJP talked about Gujarat model of development which is nothing but a lie. The Gujarat Government has worked for capitalists, ignoring the poor, whereas the Akhilesh Yadav Government has launched schemes for the welfare of poor, students and minority,” he added.