NEW DELHI: Most exit polls on Saturday forecasted a third term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). However, the opposition dismissed these voter surveys as manipulated and unreliable.
The polls predict that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)will secure more than 350 seats in the lower house of parliament, which has 543 elected members.
An NDTV-Jan Ki Baat exit poll predicted 362-392 seats for the NDA and 141-161 for the Congress-led Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).
The India Today-Axis My India survey gave 361-401 seats to the NDA and 131-166 to the INDIA bloc, whereas the Republic TV-PMARQ survey showed the ruling alliance winning 359 seats and the opposition bloc getting 154.
A poll by Dainik Bhaskar gave the BJP-led group 281-350 seats against 145-201 for Rahul Gandhi's Congress-led alliance.
However, a poll by Agni News Services gave a majority of 264 seats to the opposition bloc and 242 seats to the BJP and its allies, according to a report on the Oneindia.com website.
Reacting to the exit polls, senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan said his party will win 370 seats and together with its allies the tally will cross 400.
Former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani said he was confident Modi will become prime minister for the third time.
In the 2019 general election, the NDA won 353 seats, with the BJP alone grabbing 303 seats.
The counting of votes by the Election Commission will take place on Tuesday and official results will be available the same day.
Exit polls can go strikingly wrong in India, with inaccurate predictions made in a number of state assembly polls in recent years.
Despite the surveys predicting a comfortable victory for the BJP in the 2004 national election, the Congress and its partners emerged victorious.
Congress spokesman Jairam Ramesh in a social media post dismissed the exit polls as manipulated and "psychological games" while predicting that the India alliance was on course to win at least 295 seats, "which is a clear and decisive majority." — BERNAMA
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