Congress, NCP, SP in Maharashtra reject exit polls

Mumbai, May 19 (IANS) The Congress and the Samajwadi Party in Maharashtra on Sunday disagreed with the exit polls which predict a clean sweep for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections.

Congress Vice President Ratnakar Mahajan said some of the exit polls projections giving the NDA over 300 seats "are next to impossible".

"These figures are next to impossible. Results of our surveys and ground-level experience just don't match up with the exit poll predictions. We shall wait for the May 23 actual polls results," he said.

Shiv Sena spokesperson Neelam Gorhe was guarded in her reaction, saying the party was always positive that it would win the peoples' faith.

"The predictions in the exit polls are very encouraging. However, we will still wait for the vote-counting after four days and humbly accept the peoples' verdict," she said.

Strongly criticising the exit polls, Samajwadi Party state Vice President Afzal Farooque said that given the mood of the people in Maharashtra and rest of the country, "the exit polls seem to be way off the mark".

"The past record is that 99 per cent of such exit polls and opinion polls have misled and tended to misguide the people of the country. We must wait for the results before forming our opinions based on exit polls," Farooque remarked.

NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said that many of the exit polls results are contradicting themselves, so they lack credibility.

"Our assessment is the BJP+NDA will be restricted to less than 220-225 seats and there may be a hung parliament. However, this is not reflected in any exit polls which give wide-ranging figures ranging from 225-325 for the BJP+NDA," he said.

Specifically on Maharashtra where exit polls predict upto 41-43 out of the 48 seats - the second largest number in the country - to the NDA, Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant dismissed the projections outright.

"As a party, we don't believe in any exit polls. In the past, many exit polls and opinion polls have completely failed to reflect the people's mind. The real outcome on May 23 and we are awaiting the public verdict," he said.

There were no official or individual reactions from either the ruling BJP and the opposition Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, on the exit polls till later Sunday night.