Oppn parties trash exit polls, say verdict will be different

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 19

With exit polls predicting NDA victory, some opposition leaders led by Congress and Trinamool Congress trashed them. TMC chief Mamata Banerjee said she did not trust the exit poll “gossip”, as she alleged that the game plan was to “manipulate or replace” thousands of EVMs through this “gossip” and appealed to all opposition parties to unite and fight the EVM battle together.

While top Congress leaders maintained a stoic silence on the exit poll results, party’s spokespersons on TV said the exit polls have often been proved wrong and the actual results will be different.

“I don’t trust exit poll gossip. The game plan is to manipulate or replace thousands of EVMs through this gossip. I appeal to all Opposition parties to be united, strong and bold. We will fight this battle together,” said Banerjee on Twitter.

Though AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal did not comment on the exit polls, he re-tweeted Banerjee’s tweet trashing the polls. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, however, said, “Every single exit poll can’t be wrong! Time to switch off the TV, log out of social media and wait to see if the world is still spinning on its axis on the 23rd.” In another tweet, he said, “If your exit poll doesn’t have a (helicopter) flying around the studio you’ve already lost the battle for the viewers attention.”

Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha claimed that the UPA will have more numbers than the NDA and will form the government. “The silent voter will be king on May 23. The fear factor playing havoc with respondents to pollsters in an ugly polarised election,” he tweeted. “Ridiculous ExitPolls, almost laughable. UPA > NDA when the ‘real counting’ happens (sic),” he claimed on Twitter.

Another Congress spokesperson Ragini Naik also trashed the exit poll numbers and said the real numbers will be far different. She urged people to only see the exit polls for their “enjoyment” and not take them seriously.

CPI leader D Raja said, “These are exit polls. These are merely trends. We will have to wait and see the real results. We have seen in the past that these results are merely surveys and have sometimes proved right and sometimes wrong. We have to see the real results.”

Barring one or two, a majority of exit polls shown on various TV channels gave the NDA clear majority.

Not exact polls  

Exit polls do not mean exact polls. We have to understand that. Since 1999, most of the exit polls have gone wrong. Everyone exhibits his own confidence till May 23 (day of counting). So we have to wait. M Venkaiah Naidu, vice-president