Sarbananda Sonowal, 53, said he is confident of forming government in Assam.
Highlights
- Exit polls predict BJP will win Assam; 8% error will mean Congress win
- Sarbananda Sonowal is BJP's chief ministerial candidate
- Tarun Gogoi of the Congress hopes to win fourth term as chief minister
today and said he "prayed for the welfare of the people in Assam."
Mr Sonowal, 53, said he is confident of forming government in Assam, and is aiming for 84 of Assam's 140 seats. Halfway mark is at 71.
Not so fast, says the Congress' Tarun Gogoi, who has been chief minister of Assam for the last 15 years. He
dismisses exit polls that predict he will lose Assam today.
"I don't accept exit polls...they have been found to be wrong. In Delhi elections, in Bihar also. Exit polls in 2011 also, they gave us 40, I got 78. So where is the relevance?" Mr Gogoi, 80, told NDTV on Thursday morning a short before votes are counted.
It will take an eight per cent error in exit polls for the Congress to beat the BJP today.
But even if he loses, Mr Gogoi said, he is not taking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's advise to hang up his political boots. During his election campaign PM Modi had suggested that Mr Gogoi is too old to continue as Assam chief minister.
If BJP wins Assam today, it will get its first state in the North East. Assam voted in two phases in early April.
Votes will also be counted today in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.