Exit polls predict Congress will improve but not impressively

Exit polls released on Sunday predicted that the Congress will improve from its lowest tally of 44 seats it won in 2014 but not sufficiently enough to mark a revival at the national level.

According to predictions of several exit polls, Congress may not cross the three-digit mark.

The News 18-IPSOS poll predicted that the Congress will be barely able to improve its tally by two seats from its 2014 tally. Going by this prediction, the party would again not get Leader of Opposition status in the Lok Sabha.

Times Now-VMR poll predicted that Congress is likely to get 78 seats, while India TV predicted that the party would get 76 seats. NewxNeta predicted that the party would get 107 seats.

Congress is the lead party of United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

The prediction for UPA numbers also suggest that Congress is not likely to do very well in the polls.

For UPA, the IANS-CVoter predicted 128 seats, Republic Bharat Jan ki Baat 124, News Nation 118-126, Times Now-VMR 142, India News-Polstrat 118, Sudarshan News 121, ABP-Neilsen 127, India Today 77-108, News 18-IPSOS 82, News 24-Today's Chanakya 95+-9, NewsX Neta 165, Suvarna News 124+-2 and India TV-CNX 115-125.

If the results are close to what the exit polls have predicted, it will call for a serious introspection by Congress specially after repeated claims of party chief Rahul Gandhi that Modi-led government will be ousted from power.

Congress leaders IANS spoke to said that the party would get better results than predicted by exit polls but did not rule out the possibility of BJP-led govenrment returning to power. They said there were many possibilities and situation will be clear on May 23.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi had addressed around 150 rallies throughout the country in the run up to elections and has repeatedly asserted that the Modi-led government will be ousted from power.

Going by the exit polls, the party is not likely to be in a position to prevent the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance from coming to power.

--IANS

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