Following the end of the second phase of polling in the Gujarat Assembly Elections, exit polls are out and numbers are predicting a clear win for the BJP which is set to sweep both Gujarat as well as Himachal Pradesh, the two that went to poll this month.
As per an aggregate of exit polls from both states, the BJP is set to sweep Gujarat, with the Congress being a distant second, and Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) finishing third.
The BJP is also likely to win a record second consecutive term in Himachal Pradesh, where the elections have been a keenly contested one between the incumbent party and Congress. A BJP win will mean that the party did indeed manage to change the "riwaaj" in the hill state which over the years has tended to ossilate between the incumbent and the Opposition parties during Assembly elections.
It is significant, however, to note that exit polls are not the final result and more often than not are proved wrong.
Gujarat
A poll of polls predicts an easy win for the BJP in Gujarat which will be coming to power in its home ground for the second successive time. Gujarat has 182 assembly seats with 92 being the majority mark.
News X- Jan Ki Baat poll has predicted 117-140 seats for BJP, Republic TV P-MARQ poll has predicted 128-148 seats and and TV9 Gujarati has predicted 125-130 seats for the ruling party. NDTV's poll of exit polls gives the BJP 131 of 182 seats in Gujarat and the Congress and its allies 41.
Meanwhile, Congress is expected to win anywhere between 30-50 seats as per the aggregate of the three polls, NDTV reported. This means a significant drop in its tally from 2017 when it prevented BJP from breaching the 100 mark.
Despite an aggressive and highly publicized campaign, Kejriwal's AAP is likely to win less than 10 seats.
Himachal Pradesh
The hill state is seeing a tough fight between BJP and Congress. Aaj Tak-Axis My India poll predicts a Congress win with 30 to 40 seats while it predicts the BJP winning anywhere between 24 - 34 seats. India TV's poll gives the edge to BJP with 35-40 expected wins while it predicted 26-31 seats for the Congress. NDTV's poll of polls which made an aggregate of six exit polls including News X- Jan Ki Baat, Republic TV P-MARQ, Times Now-ET and Zee News-BARC, predicted a BJP victory with the ruling party winning in 36 seats while the Congress is likely to bag 29.
Yet again, a reminder that while exit polls are useful to judge the mood of voters and even make accurate predictions on some occasions, they are not the final result and may not always accurately depict the reality on ground.
