The Congress is very hopeful that the Lok Sabha election results, to be declared on Tuesday, will defy predictions made in exit polls, party leader Sonia Gandhi said on Monday, according to PTI.
“We have to wait, just wait and see,” the former Congress president said. “We are very hopeful that our results are completely opposite to what the exit polls are showing.”
All major exit polls on Saturday predicted a comfortable majority for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance. The coalition is predicted to secure over 350 seats in the Lower House of Parliament while the Opposition INDIA bloc is pegged to win between 130 and 160 seats, according to most pollsters.
A party or coalition needs to win at least 272 out of the Lok Sabha’s 543 seats to form the government.
On Sunday, Congress leaders had insisted that the exit polls – released after the last phase of polling ended on June 1 – were divorced from reality.
Party leader Rahul Gandhi described the exit polls as “Modi media polls” and claimed that they were merely a product of the prime minister’s fantasy.
When asked how many seats he thought the INDIA bloc would win, Gandhi said, “Have you heard [late Indian singer] Sidhu Moose Wala’s song 295? 295.”
Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal too alleged that the exit polls were fabricated. “Take it from me in writing, all the exit polls are fake,” he said. “One pollster gave 33 seats to the BJP, even though there are only 25 seats in the state.”
Kejriwal made the remarks while addressing his party members shortly before he surrendered at Delhi’s Tihar Jail. The chief minister returned to prison on Sunday after his 21-day interim bail had lapsed.
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