Exit Polls Confirm Predictions

Exit polls conducted by major television networks have placed NDA ahead of Congressand its allies in the 140 constituencies that went to polls in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections heldtoday.

While 'Aaj Tak' put NDA on the top with 93 seats, five more than in the lastelections, 'Star News' projected that the BJP-led combine would get 80 seats.

Congress and allies were projected to get 53 by 'Star News' and 44 by 'Aaj Tak',while the two channels gave "Others" three and seven respectively.

The Zee-Taleem survey showed NDA getting between 63 and 78 seats and the Congress andits allies between 37 and 50 seats. It gave up to 16 seats to "Others".

The DRS-Sahara exit poll showed the saffron-led combine getting 82 seats, six lessthan in 1999, while the Congress getting 55 - nine more than last time and "Others" getting 3.

The Indian Express -NDTV exit poll indicates 75 seats for the NDA, 53 for the Congress and "Others" 12. The NDA is expectedto make significant gains in Karnataka and Maharashtra. In Andhra, the Congress-Telanganaalliance is expected to do better than the BJP- TDPtie-up.

Forecast

Based on the assumption that similar polling trends would continue in the remainingphases of elections, the 'Aaj Tak' gave "early seat projections" for all the 543 Lok Sabhaconstituencies, predicting 288 for NDA, 159 for Congress and allies and 96 for "Others".

'Aaj Tak', which made its predictions on the basis of interviews of 31,108 electorsspread over 16 states and UTs, said that both NDA and Congress and allies would improve their vote share byfour per cent each while other parties parties would lose four per cent.

According to it, NDA would get 49 per centvotes in the first phase, Congress and allies 44per cent and other parties seven per cent.

Based on the first phase polling,the Indian Express-NDTV exit poll has forecasted 260-280 seats for the NDA inthe 14th Lok Sabha. The Congress and its allies are expected to do better thanearlier predictions with around 165-185 seats. The "Other" parties ,which also include BSP and Samjawadi Party are expected to get 110-115seats.   

The Indian-Express NDTV predictions are based exit poll conducted in 57 of the148 constituencies that went to polls in the first phase. A sample size of23,096 voters were interviewed. In each of the 57 constituencies, two assemblysegments were selected at random and 500 people were interviewed in eachsegment, after they had casted their votes.    

States

By and large the polls today showed a sweep for the BJP in Gujarat, but a neck and neck race in Maharashtra.While the Aaj Tak polls showed BJP getting 23 out of 26 seats in gujarat, Zee showed the party getting between18 and 20 seats and the rest going to Congress.

In Maharashtra, the polls showed the Congress-NCP winning in 12 out of the 24 seatsfor which polls were held today. The BJP-Shiv Sena is likely to get 11 while the BSP two to three, the Aaj TakSurvey said.

Zee projected 10-12 seats to Cong/NCP and 6-8 seats to BJP-Shiv Sena.

In Andhra Pradesh, TDP-BJP combine was seen to be lagging behind with eight whileCong and allies were getting 13 in 21 of the 42 seats that went to polls, Aaj tak said. Zee gave the Congresscombine 10-12 seats and the TDP-BJP 8-10 seats.

Assembly Situation

Surprisingly, according to Zee the TDP and BJP were doing well in Assembly polls andwere ahead in 63-71 seats while the Congress was close with leads in 70-76 of the 147 seats where polling washeld today.

Aaj Tak survey in Karnataka showed BJP ahead with 11 seats and Congress in four of the 15 Lok Sabhaconstituencies which went to polls, while the Zee gave BJP 3-5 seats, Congress 4-6 and JD(Secular) 2-4 seats.

In Bihar where polling was held in 11 seats, JD(U)-BJP combine was ahead in nine,while Congress-RJD was ahead in 2-3 seats, Zee showed, while Aaj Tak gave same projections.

Aaj Tak showed Congress getting two seats in Orissa and the BJP-BJD combine ahead innine of the 11 seats, while Zee gave BJP-BJD 5-9 and Congress 3-5. In Jharkhand, Zee showed BJP ahead in fiveof the six seats, while Aaj Tak gave it lead in four seats with the remaining going to Congress. InChhattisgarh, they showed the BJP ahead in 5-7 and Congress ahead in 3-5 in the eleven seats of the state.