Gujarat Election Results 2017: Political Party Leaders React To Exit Polls

New Delhi: As the nation gears up for the counting of the 2017 Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh election results, the exit polls conducted after the elections highlight a huge victory for the BJP and paint a dim outlook for the Congress. NDTV also conducted a poll of all the exit polls, which is an aggregate of 10 exit polls for Gujarat and an aggregate of 8 exit polls for Himachal Pradesh. The poll of exit polls show that the BJP will continue to form the government in Gujarat, getting around 116 seats, while the Congress gets 65 seats. In Himachal Pradesh again, the BJP is set to win big with 47 seats, thus toppling the current Congress administration in the state, which will win only around 20 seats.

However, exit polls have always been treated with a pinch of salt by all political party leaders. There have been quite a few reactions to the exit polls, many of which offer the point of view of the political party itself or which reflect contrary views as well.

Many BJP leaders had many different reactions to their potential victories in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Current Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has said that the BJP will win 150 seats, much more than what exit polls have predicted.

"We will get more than 150 seats... That was our target," Mr Rupani said during a press conference recently, while adding that the slight drop in the percentage of people who voted in the 2017 Gujarat elections, when compared to the 2012 elections, would not affect the BJP's performance at all.

In Maharashtra, where the BJP shares a strained relationship with ex-ally Shiv Sena, its party chief Uddhav Thackeray said there was a huge difference between the exit polls and the ground realities in Gujarat. He also congratulated Rahul Gandhi for taking over as Congress chief.

The Congress' leaders meanwhile, have also been quick to dismiss the exit polls.

Congress spokesperson Shobha Oza said, "We have seen exit polls in Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Punjab. All of them proved to be wrong. So, how much can one trust the exit polls."

Congress leader Manish Tewari also said exit polls have been wrong in the past, saying they were "sensational filler".
 "The interesting thing about exit polls is that they are very sensational filler between the close of polls and when results come out. I think over the last 10 years... exit polls have been right and wrong. In the case of Bihar, all the exit polls turned out to be wrong," he said.

However, the most surprising reaction came from one of BJP's own leaders, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Kakade, who, breaking with the party's sentiments, said the BJP would not win enough seats in Gujarat to form the government. He also claimed to have had his own team do a survey in Gujarat.

"Forget absolute majority, the party will not even get enough number of seats to form the government. The Congress on the other hand will reach close to the majority mark," said Mr Karkare.