Assam: Congress says exit polls ‘misleading’, BJP hits back

Guwahati, May 20 (PTI): The Congress’s Assam unit on Monday said the exit poll results were “imaginary and misleading”, drawing sharp reactions from the BJP, which said the opposition party was making the allegations as it was going to “lose miserably”.

The Congress said the exit poll results were a ploy by the BJP to divert attention of the people when it is actually faced by imminent defeat.

“This has been completely pre-planned by the BJP and the party has pressured a section of the media to carry out these polls based on false premises,” Congress’s state unit spokesman Durga Das Boro said.

“This has been primarily done to demoralise the opposition parties and also to ensure that the people and organisations who have helped them (BJP) financially are not demotivated while at the same time there is no negative impact on the share market,” he added.

Boro said his party does not consider the exit polls of any value as the Congress is confident of its victory.

BJP’s state unit chief Ranjit Dass dismissed the comments and said his party will be winning 10 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

“We campaigned to increase our tally from the seven seats we had won in 2014 and even before the exit polls came, we were confident of winning ten seats,” he said.

“The BJP is sure of forming government at the Centre and the Congress is making false and useless allegations as it is going to lose miserably,” Dass said.

However, BJP ally BPF’s Kokrajhar candidate Pramila Rani Brahma, who is also the state social welfare minister, said the exit polls may be “exaggerated but I am confident of winning from my constituency”.

Most exit polls have predicted a second term for the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre. In Assam, the surveys have forecast that the BJP will win seven to ten seats, while the Congress is likely to bag two to six seats.