Exit polls: Cong puts up brave front

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ambala, May 20

The favourable prediction by a majority of pollsters has raised the interest and excitement of BJP workers, who gathered at the party office here on Monday.

Saffron party activists seemed relaxed and expressed confidence that the people of the country as well as Ambala had made up their mind to re-elect Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister.

“People had decided to vote for the BJP the day Lok Sabha elections were announced. Now, they have started saying ‘aayega to Modi hi’ (Modi will return as PM),” two-time sitting BJP MP Rattan Lal Kataria said.

Bharat Bhushan Aggarwal, a veteran BJP leader, claimed everyone, including youth and elders, voted for Modi.

A day after the exit polls painted a grim picture for the Congress, the party office here wore a deserted look even though a handful of workers present there rejected the forecast that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would return to power. Most exit polls on Sunday predicted another term for Modi, with some of them projecting that the BJP-led NDA would get more than 300 seats to comfortably cross the majority mark of 272 in Lok Sabha.

The usual commotion at the Congress office was missing on Monday morning. Party workers attributed this to a “false atmosphere” created by the exit polls.

The Congress is confident of an improved performance. But local party activists said the BJP would win only if EVMs were manipulated. They said the fight between Rajya Sabha member Kumari Selja and Kataria was tough.

They claim Selja would poll more votes than what she did in 2009 and 2004, when she had defeated Kataria.

With two days to go for the counting of votes, candidates, especially Kataria and Selja, and their supporters are spending sleepless nights. Groups of supporters are rotating duties to guard the EVMs outside the counting centres.