DELHI: With the counting of votes to begin Tuesday morning, it is the exit-poll tension dominating the political scene. With almost every Exit poll indicating the return of Narendra Modi retaining power for a third consecutive term, a tense Congress has exuded confidence that the party will do much better than what was projected in the exit polls in states such as Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and asserted the INDIA bloc is going to form the next government.
The assertion was made at an online interaction Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh had before the media with key state leaders, PCC presidents and legislature party leaders of various states, according to PTI.
During his Zoom call interaction with Ramesh, Assam Congress chief Bhupen Borah said that his party would win at least seven seats in the state. He said that alleged internal squabbling in the BJP and the impact of the INDIA bloc had benefitted the Congress.
Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa said all the surveys have given 7-9 seats to the Congress.
“We are ahead on 9 seats, 1 seat will go to the AAP and 3 seats will be won by the candidates who will not in any way help the NDA or PM. The INDIA alliance will get a minimum of 10 seats…In Punjab, the NDA is not going to get even a single seat,” he said.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said the Congress has an edge on two parliamentary seats and is in a tight contest on the two other seats in the hill state. He exuded confidence that the Congress was also winning the six assembly seats where the by-polls had taken place.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said that his party would win at least two-thirds of the 28 seats on the back of the popularity of the guarantees the Congress fulfilled after coming to power in the state.
photo Bilal bahadur
Bihar Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh said that his party would win 6-7 seats out of 9 seats it contested in the state.
Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole, Haryana state unit chief Udai Bhan, Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra and Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajai Rai also spoke during the interaction and exuded confidence of a much better performance in their respective states than the projections made in the exit polls.
The unusual interaction before the media came a day after the Exit polls on Saturday predicted that Prime Minister Modi would retain power for a third straight term, with the BJP-led NDA, expected to win a big majority in the Lok Sabha polls.
While India Today-Axis My India has forecast 361-401 seats for the BJP-led alliance and 131-166 seats for the opposition INDIA bloc in the 543-member Lok Sabha, the ABP-C Voter predicted 353-383 seats for the ruling alliance and 152-182 seats for the INDIA bloc.
All the state leaders, who spoke at the virtual interaction, debunked the exit polls as part of a psychological game being played by the BJP to “reduce the morale of the Congress workers”.
Slamming the exit polls, Ramesh said the exit polls were “completely bogus” and a “deliberate attempt” to justify rigging of the elections.
He said they were part of “psychological games” being played by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lower the morale of the INDIA bloc workers.
EC Seeks Details
Meanwhile, the Election Commission (EC) has sought factual information from Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday on his claim that Home Minister Amit Shah has called up 150 district magistrates and collectors ahead of the June 4 counting of votes for the Lok Sabha polls
In a letter to Ramesh, the poll panel has asked him to share details regarding his claim by 7 pm on Sunday.
The EC has referred to his post on X on June 1, in which the Congress general secretary had alleged that “the outgoing Home Minister has been calling up DMs/Collectors. So far, he has spoken to 150 of them. This is blatant and brazen intimidation, showing how desperate the BJP is….”
The process of counting votes is a sacred duty cast upon every returning officer and such public statements “tend to put an element of doubt and thus, deserves to be addressed in the larger public interest”, the EC has told Ramesh.
It has also told the Congress leader that when the Model Code of Conduct is in force, all officers are under the deemed deputation of the commission and they report directly to the poll watchdog for any directions.
“However, no DM has reported any such undue influence as alleged by you…,” the EC’s letter to Ramesh has stated.
“It is requested that details of 150 DMs to whom such calls have been allegedly made by the Home Minister along with the factual matrix/basis of your information are shared by 7 pm today — June 2, 2024, so that appropriate action can be taken,” it has told the Congress leader.
It has been said that being a responsible, experienced and very senior leader of a national party, Ramesh must have made such a public statement ahead of the counting day based on facts or information he believes to be true.
BJP Speaks
The BJP hit back, saying Gandhi had been living in a “fantasy world” since childhood and is cut off from the ground reality.
“He believes everything to be a fantasy. It is his fantasy that made Congress lose the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. This time, they are going to score a hattrick of losing Lok Sabha elections and that is why they are talking nonsense,” BJP national spokesperson Prem Shukla said.
“The exit poll is a reality poll and indicates that people have shown faith in the leader who has worked for them in the last 10 years,” BJP leader Shaina NC said.
Exit Polls Are Fake
Terming the exit polls “bogus”, the Congress on Sunday said they were a “deliberate attempt” to justify rigging of the elections and part of “psychological games” being played by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lower the morale of the INDIA bloc workers.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi dubbed the exit polls as “Modi media poll”.
“This is not called an exit poll but its name is ‘Modi media poll’. This is Modi ji’s poll, it is his fantasy poll,” Gandhi told reporters at the AICC headquarters after a meeting with the party’s Lok Sabha MPs via video conference.
Asked how many seats the INDIA bloc will get, Gandhi said, “Have you heard Sidhu Moose Wala’s song ‘295’? So 295 (seats).”
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also hit out at Prime Minister Modi for holding several meetings, including a long brainstorming session to review the 100-day agenda of the “new government”, saying these were “pressure tactics” to send out a signal to the bureaucracy and the administrative structure that he is coming back.
“These are mind games — ‘I am coming back, I am going to be the prime minister again’. He is sending a signal to the bureaucracy, the administrative structure of the country and we hope that the civil servants who have been entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring a fair counting of votes will not be intimidated and not frightened by these pressure tactics,” Ramesh told PTI at the AICC headquarters here.
He also said that the exit polls that came out Saturday evening are “completely bogus” and have been “orchestrated and masterminded by the man whose exit is inevitable and guaranteed on June 4”.
“These are all part of the psychological games being played by the outgoing prime minister (Narendra Modi) and the outgoing home minister (Amit Shah). The outgoing home minister called up 150 District Magistrates and collectors yesterday. The results that the exit polls have come up with bear no relation to reality,” the Congress leader claimed.
Exit polls on Saturday predicted that Prime Minister Modi will retain power for a third straight term, with the BJP-led NDA expected to win a big majority in the Lok Sabha polls.
Slamming the exit polls, Ramesh said in some states the NDA has been given more seats than the number of seats available in that state.
“It flies in the face of all political feedback. The INDIA ‘janbandhan’ parties met yesterday, we went through state-wise analysis and there is no way INDIA janbandhan is going to get less than 295 seats,” Ramesh said.
“This is a deliberate attempt to justify rigging, this is a deliberate attempt to justify the manipulation of EVMs and this is also psychological ops to lower the morale of the Congress workers and the INDIA janbandhan workers. We are not going to be frightened, we are not going to be intimidated and you will see that the actual results on June 4 will be completely different from what these exit polls show,” the Congress general secretary said.
These are political exit polls and not professional exit polls, he added.
Ramesh pointed out that Congress treasurer and senior leader Ajay Maken has raised the issue of candidates’ counting agents at the Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) table not being allowed.
“He (Maken) has raised this issue, there has been some response from the CEO of Delhi but the fact of the matter is that he raised this issue based on legitimate fears that had been expressed by the candidates. We have raised the issue of the counting of postal ballots and the effort of the Election Commission to change the methodology that has been part of the law,” Ramesh said.
He said the Congress has raised all such issues before the poll watchdog and had filed 117 complaints to it over the last 77 days, 14 of which are against the PM.
“There has been no credible action from the EC. It is a constitutional body and we expect it to function in an impartial, professional manner and must give us the confidence that it is on top of the job,” he said.
“We have sought time from the EC on the postal ballots issue. We are hopeful that we will get time from the EC which should be accessible to all political parties and should not function like an extended arm of the ruling party. So we are hopeful that we will get time from the EC,” the Congress general secretary said.
Ramesh reiterated that the exit polls have been “deliberately engineered by the man whose exit is inevitable on June 4”.
On the slew of meetings being held by the PM on Sunday, Ramesh said, “All mind games being played, the fact that the outgoing home minister is talking to 150 DMs and collectors and the fact that the outgoing PM is talking to secretaries on his so-called plan. He needs a 100-day plan of what he is going to do after June 4.”
The counting of votes will take place on June 4.
(With PTI inputs)
