Though there may have been differences in accepting the “virtual reality” of opinion and exit polls, while political parties had completely written off the exit polls, most of them have proved themselves to be on right path. But what is again to be watched and discussed is the authenticity by Today’s Chankaya-News 24 exit polls- the only exit poll which has gone nearest.
The News 24-Today's Chanakya poll gave the NDA 340 seats, with the BJP alone winning 291 seats. The same had projected that AAP would be near to 30 seats in Delhi Assembly polls when most of the exit polls on leading channels and pshephologists had given AAP maximum 12 seats (that too who had gone liberal). While others in the last assembly polls said that Chhattisgarh may go to Congress, Chankaya was the only to say that BJP would return to power.
The Congress' predicted tally too varies widely from a mere 57 in the Chanakya poll to a possible 138 in the Times Now poll. At 57, the Congress wouldn't just be reduced to a historic low, it would face its biggest crisis in post-Independence history, it said.
For Rajasthan, the Headline Today together with News 24 polls predicted that the Congress could, at one end of the range of their projections, get completely wiped out, but the Times Now poll predicted that party could win 14 of the 25 seats in the state where it faced a rout in the assembly polls in December.
On AAP, most polls agreed that it would make its presence felt, in Punjab in particular, but yet again there was disagreement on just how well it would do. The News24 poll said the party could emerge as the single largest in Punjab, winning five of the 13 seats while others gave it no seats at all.
Exit polls have gone quite wrong on occasions, including most famously in 2004 when they predicted the NDA would form its third successive government. But they have also got it right on several occasions, including in the latest assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and now the lok Sabha Polls of 2014.