PM Narendra Modi Hat-Trick, Powered By South, Odisha, Bengal, Predict Exit Polls

A historic third term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi — that’s what exit polls are predicting as the seventh and the last phase of Lok Sabha election concluded this evening. None, though, have yet carried the NDA across its dream score of 400 of 543 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP, too, has been placed far short of its 370-seat target. The INDIA bloc, five exit polls predicted, will fall massively short of the 285 seats predicted by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge this evening.

An aggregate of six exit polls indicates that the NDA will get 367 seats, the INDIA bloc will get 143 seats. The BJP’s individual score will be 327 seats, the Congress, 52.

The maximum number of seats predicted for the NDA was 362-392, in the exit poll by Jan ki Baat. It predicts the Opposition bloc will get 141-161 seats.

It is followed by India News-D Dynamics, which is predicting that the NDA will get 371 seats and INDIA 125 seats.

The lowest score for the NDA comes from Dainik Bhaskar — 281-350, and a corresponding higher score for the INDIA bloc, 145-201 seats.

Exit polls do not always get it right.

All exit polls, though, are unanimous about NDA’s improved performance in the south and in Bengal.

In Andhra Pradesh, the alliance with Chandrababu Naidu paid off, they predict, with the NDA expected to get 18 of the state’s 25 seats.

Karnataka is also expected to vote overwhelmingly for the BJP, despite its preference for the Congress at the state level. In Telangana too, the Congress may be unable to capitalise on the assembly poll victory and the decimation of K Chandrasekhar Rao’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi, exit polls indicate. The BJP is likely to walk away with over half of the state’s 17 seats.

The BJP is even expected to open its account Tamil Nadu, with at least two seats, exit polls predict.

In Bengal, the BJP is expected to push up its 2019 score of 18 seats to 22, outstripping the state  powerhouse Trinamool Congress for the first time. Mamata Banerjee’s party could get just 19 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats.

The BJP will also continue to dominate bastions like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand,  Himachal Pradesh, and the national capital. Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party — and ally Congress — could again fail to win a single seat in Delhi, exit polls predict.

Change, though, is expected in Bihar, which had given 39 of its 40 seats to the NDA in the last election. The Opposition alliance, spearheaded by Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, is expected to prise off 7 seats. The Opposition could also pick up three of 10 seats in Haryana and  a few in Rajasthan — states where they scored a duck in 2019.