“When BJP is winning in exit polls, why aren’t workers and leaders happy?” — Hardik Patel
Caravan News
AHMEDABAD — Soon after the polling for Gujarat Assembly ended Thursday evening, exit polls flashed on TV screens with one consensus conclusion – BJP will win, and with comfortable majority. However, the deafening cry from TV studios could not shake Patel youth leader Hardik Patel. He went to Twitter to say that BJP will lose the election and all exit polls are purposely favoring BJP.
Except India Today exit poll that kept the minimum winning seats for BJP below 100, all other exit polls showed BJP’s victory range above 100. The News24 exit poll went far ahead to say that BJP will win 135 seats in the 182-member Assembly. On the other hand, no exit poll showed Congress getting more than 75 seats, that is 17 seat short of simple majority.
However, Hardik who became symbol of the Patel anger and had been pulling massive crowds in his election rallies across Gujarat in the last two months, was not down by the chilling exit polls.
The 24-year-old Patel leader, who gave more sleepless nights to Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in last two weeks than anyone in the last 20 years of their government, took to Twitter to say that the Assembly election result is being shown in favour of BJP so that no one suspects the EVMs. He further said that there is no chance of BJP victory.
“Storm from East, Cry from Saurashtra and anger from South – all will convert into महापरिवर्तन or a big change of power,” he tweeted in Hindi.
Also read: TOP PSEPHOLOGIST YOGENDRA YADAV PREDICTS BJP DEBACLE IN GUJARAT
Taking a dig at BJP, he asked: “When BJP is winning in exit polls, yet why aren’t workers and leaders happy?”
The elections for Gujarat Assembly were held in two phases – on December 9 for 89 seats and on December 14 for the rest 93 seats. The votes will be counted on December 18.
A day before the second phase of polling, India’s former leading psephologist Yogendra Yadav had predicted a clear victory for the Congress.
Yadav on Thursday outlined three scenarios post-results on December 18. As per the first scenario, which he categorized as ‘Possible’, BJP will get 43% vote share but only 86 seats. And Congress, with the same vote share, will bag 92 seats – the simple majority a party will need to form the government in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly.
In the second ‘Likely’ scenario, BJP will get only 41% vote share and be restricted to 65 seats – almost half the strength the saffron party got in the 2012 Assembly elections. Congress with 45% vote share will get 113 seats – it will be first time that Congress will be crossing the 100-seat mark in the state in decades.
In the third scenario, Yadav, who once ruled the roost in the Indian psephology some years ago, has not ruled out that BJP may get even bigger defeat.
Despite all exit polls favouring BJP on Thursday, local media said the fight between BJP and Congress was tight and the results would be very close.