People wait in a queue to cast their votes at a polling station in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh on May 12. Millions of voters wrapped up a mammoth national election Monday, braving the searing sun on the final day of polling with the BJP candidate seen as the front-runner for prime minister. India has been voting in phases over six weeks, with results expected on Friday. (AP Photo)
New Delhi, May 12 (IANS): The BJP-led NDA coalition is poised to return to power by winning a majority in the Lok Sabha, ending a decade of Congress-led UPA rule, exit polls said Monday after the general election ended.
Three exit polls projected the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance between 272 and 289 seats in the 545-member Lok Sabha where two members are nominated by the government. The India Today-CICERO exit poll and the ABP-Nielsen survey predicted 272 or more seats for the NDA, in which the BJP is the dominant partner.
While the India Today-CICERO gave the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) 115 seats and other parties 156, the ABP-Nielsen tally for the Congress grouping was 110. Projections by India TV-CVoter put the NDA on top with 289 seats and the UPA far behind with 101. Other groups were projected to get 148 seats and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) five seats nationally.
Going by the projections, the Congress - India’s oldest political party - could end up with its lowest tally ever in the Lok Sabha, perhaps in just two figures. The BJP, led by its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, said the exit polls were on expected lines. Its leaders insisted that the party was sure to get a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha.
“Wherever we went during campaigning, it was clear that people wanted a change (in government),” party leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said. “They also wanted Modi to lead the country.”
A dispirited Congress did not accept defeat, but a party leader, Rashid Alvi, said rising food prices certainly worked against the Congress all across the country. The exit polls gave the BJP and its allies far more seats than the Congress-led UPA in northern, western and central India. Only some parts of the country’s south held hope for the Congress.
ABP News-Nielsen said the BJP would make huge gains in the populous states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra which together account for 168 crucial Lok Sabha seats. According to it, the NDA would get 46 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, from where Modi is fighting one of his two Lok Sabha elections. A fourth exit poll, on CNN-IBN, said the BJP was expected to do unusually well in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu where traditionally it has been weak.
2014 election sees highest
ever voter turnout at 66.38%
New Delhi, May 12 (IANS): The national voter turnout of 66.38 percent in the 2014 general election was the highest ever in Indian polls, the Election Commission said Monday. “The voting percentage for the whole nation this time was 66.38 percent, which is the highest ever in history,” Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi said at a press conference here. He added that the national voting percentage was likely to increase marginally later.
ever voter turnout at 66.38%
New Delhi, May 12 (IANS): The national voter turnout of 66.38 percent in the 2014 general election was the highest ever in Indian polls, the Election Commission said Monday. “The voting percentage for the whole nation this time was 66.38 percent, which is the highest ever in history,” Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi said at a press conference here. He added that the national voting percentage was likely to increase marginally later.
The previous highest voter turnout was recorded in 1984 which was 64 percent. The turnout this time is considerably higher than 2009, which saw a 58.19 percent turnout. Zutshi said that 15 states and union territories have recorded their highest ever turnout while 32 states and union territories recorded a turnout which was higher than 2009.
