After V-P, Gadkari doubts exit polls

New Delhi, May 20

A day after Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu mocked the exit polls, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today said the exit polls were not the “final decision” but indicated that the BJP would return to power.

“Exit polls are not the final decision, but are indications. But, by and large, what comes out in the exit polls also reflects in the results,” Gadkari said while talking to reporters after launch of a new poster of the forthcoming Bollywood biopic “PM Narendra Modi”.

Twelve of 14 exit polls predicted the NDA getting a full majority with seats ranging from 282 to 365. A party or an alliance needs 271 seats to form the government as the Lok Sabha elections were held on 542 of the 543 seats.

The exit polls predicted the Congress-led UPA getting 82 to 165 seats. Six exit polls predicted that ‘other’ parties were likely to get more seats than the UPA.

The former BJP chief asserted that the new BJP-led government would be formed under PM Narendra Modi’s leadership as elections were fought under him. His remarks came a day after the Vice President said the “exit polls do not mean exact polls”. “We have to understand that. Since 1999, most of the exit polls have gone wrong,” Naidu said in Guntur. “Everyone exhibits his own confidence till the 23rd (day of counting). There will be no base for it. So we have to wait for 23rd,” he had said. — IANS