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India’s Election: Phase 7 Turnout Surpasses 61%, Exit Polls Favor BJP-Led NDA The opposition dismissed the exit polls, labeling them as "prefixed" during a meeting at Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge's residence in New Delhi earlier on Saturday.

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New Delhi: In the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha elections, a voter turnout of 61.63 percent was recorded by 11.45 pm (released by Election Commission of India – ECI) across 57 parliamentary constituencies spanning eight states and Union Territories. In Bihar  51.92% voters exercised their right, while 67.9% polling in Chandigarh, 69.67% in Himachal Pradesh, 70.66% in Jharkhand, 70.67% in Odisha, 58.33% in Punjab, 55.59 % in Uttar Pradesh and 73.36% in West Bengal were recorded by 11.45pm on Saturday. 

As the seven-phase poll concluded, all attention turned to the exit polls, which began to surface immediately after the voting ended. Most of the exit polls on Saturday suggested that the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is likely to secure a two-thirds majority in the 543-member lower house of parliament, where 272 seats are needed for a simple majority.

Exit polls predict a significant victory for the ruling BJP-led NDA, with projections from twelve sources indicating a substantial lead. India Today-Axis My India forecasts 361-401 seats for the NDA, while News 24-Today’s Chanakya predicts 400 seats. ABP News-C Voter estimates a range of 353-383 seats, Republic Bharat-P Marq suggests 359, and India News-D-Dyanamics expects 371. Republic Bharat-Matrize gives the NDA between 353-368 seats, Dainik Bhaskar predicts 281-350, News Nation projects 342-378, TV 9 Bharatvarsh-Polstrat forecasts 342, Times Now-ETG suggests 358, India TV-CNX estimates between 362-392, and Jan Ki Baat also predicts 362-392. CNN-News18 anticipates 355 seats for the BJP and its coalition partners.

The exit polls also foresee NDA dominance in Karnataka and Maharashtra, and a significant defeat for the Left-led alliance in Kerala. In West Bengal, the BJP is expected to perform better than in the previous election, with many polls indicating it will become the single-largest party in terms of Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The opposition INDIA alliance, led by Rahul Gandhi’s Congress party, is projected to win over 120 seats according to exit polls released after six weeks of voting concluded on Saturday.

Exit polls in India, conducted by various polling agencies, have a mixed track record and are often unreliable due to the country’s vast diversity and complexity.

The opposition dismissed the exit polls, labeling them as “prefixed” during a meeting at Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence in New Delhi earlier on Saturday.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor criticized the exit poll predictions as “deeply unscientific,” emphasizing the importance of actual votes over speculative data. He asserted that the BJP would not make gains in Kerala and Tamil Nadu and would suffer significant losses in Karnataka.

Many opposition parties accuse India’s main news channels of bias in favor of Modi, a claim the channels have denied.

“This is a government exit poll, this is Narendra Modi’s exit poll,” stated Supriya Shrinate, Congress’s social media head, to the ANI news agency. “We have a sense of how many seats we are winning.”

Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which governs Delhi, told the Press Trust of India that the exit polls are “of the government and of the BJP.”

“Exit polls always show the BJP winning. In the meeting of the INDIA bloc, leaders have said that 295 seats are coming to the INDIA alliance and we will form a government,” he stated.

Nearly one billion people were eligible to vote in the seven-phase election, which began on April 19 and took place in scorching summer heat in many regions.

The Election Commission will count votes on June 4, with results expected the same day.

– Dr. Shahid Siddiqui; Follow via X @shahidsiddiqui

 

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