As the Bengal elections came to a close under the shadow of Covid-19 and sporadic violence in many regions on Thursday, most Exit Polls predicted the ruling Trinamool Congress party (TMC) to win. This has not deterred BJP's confidence as they claim of coming to power in the state with a thumping majority.
The saffron party in the state is expecting to win over more than 200 seats in the state. Refuting the Exit Poll claims about the ruling TMC coming back in power, BJP national spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal exuded confidence about the party's performance in the state.
Agarwal said, "exit polls cannot be treated as polls. West Bengal is amid the air of change. The way Mamata Banerjee has created a confrontation with the central government kept the people deprived of the Central benefits, indulge in appeasement politics... She (Mamata Banerjee) is going to lose elections badly. In West Bengal, the BJP government is going to be formed with an absolute majority."
Meanwhile, BJP's IT cell head Amit Malviya, the West Bengal co-in-charge, said: "The BJP is going to win more than 200 seats regardless of whatever the figures of the exit polls suggest. During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, nobody said that the BJP may win 18 seats. However, the party stunned everyone. Let's wait for the results on May 2... everything will become clear."
While exit polls from Axis My India-India Today and the Republic-CNX exit polls predicted huge gains for BJP, other surveys, including the CVoter Exit Poll for Times Now/ABP News, predicted victory for the TMC for the third time.
According to P-MARQ’s exit poll, the TMC was expected to get 162 seats and BJP was to win in 113. The Times Now-C-Voter expects 158 seats to the TMC and 115 to the BJP, while ETG Research estimated 169 seats for the TMC and 110 to the BJP.
As per the ABP C-Voter exit poll, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to make significant inroads in Bengal by bagging as much as a 39 percent vote share. It is to be noted that the saffron party managed to secure a mere 10 percent vote share in 2016 Assembly polls.
According to the survey conducted by ABP News, Mamata Banerjee-led TMC is expected to get somewhere around 152 to 164 seats in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly. Meanwhile, the BJP, which currently has 3 seats in West Bengal, is likely to bag somewhere between 109 to 121 seats in the state.
In a massive jolt, the Congress+Left alliance is most likely to lose its grounds in West Bengal as projections suggest that it will manage to secure only a 15 percent vote share. In 2016 Assembly polls, Congress & Left had secured a gigantic 38 percent vote share.
While the BJP has been criticized at the national level for Covid mismanagement, Mamata's TMC is facing strong anti-incumbency sentiment after ruling the state for 10 years. The results for the 294 seats will be declared on May 2nd, 2021.
The political battle in Bengal remains intense with Mamata Banerjee leaving her home seat Bhawanipore and contesting from Nandigram against former ally now BJP Leader Suvendu Adhikari.