Deccan Chronicle

KCR’s hopes for a Front dashed

- S.A. ISHAQUI | DC

Exit poll surveys which were out on Sunday have weakened Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasek­har Rao’s chances of forming a federal government at the Centre.

Though the exit polls predicted that the lion’s share of seats would go to the TRS in the state, they also predicted that the ruling BJPled NDA would effortless­ly come to power again at the Centre. Mr Rao, who is batting for the Federal Front since his landslide victory in December 2018 Assembly elections, had just a day before the exit polls, expressed confidence of forming a non-Congress and non-BJP government with regional parties, at the Centre.

As per the exit polls, the TRS will likely win 12 seats and others — Congress, BJP and MIM — will share the remaining five.

Exit poll surveys which were out on Sunday have weakened Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasek­har Rao’s chances of forming a federal government at the Centre.

As for the Lok Sabha, it come as a surprise to Mr Rao that the NDA would form the government at the Centre.

To push for his Federal Front, Mr Rao has been meeting party leaders like Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Naveen Patnaik, P. Vijayan, former PM Deve Gowda, M.K. Stalin and also Jagan Mohan Reddy. But many of these party leaders differed with him.

Only the YSRC in Andhra Pradesh and the AIMIM have openly lent their support to KCR’s Federal Front initiative.

Meanwhile, TRS cadres and leaders are jubilant at the exit polls predicting a win for the TRS in the state with the main Opposition parties, the Congress and the BJP losing ground in the state, and the Telugu Desam losing ground in AP.

They are still hopeful that the actual results will paint a different picture at the Centre.

Party leaders point out that in the 2014 elections, the UPA had just 60 seats and now all the prediction­s show that the UPA will cross the century mark and also an increase in the seats of other parties.

■ THEY point out that in the 2014 elections, the UPA had just 60 seats and now all the prediction­s show that the UPA will cross the century mark.

Following are the prediction­s of exit polls of various agencies for Telangana state. The India Today-My Axis poll predicted that the K. Chandrasek­har Rao-led TRS would secure anywhere between 10 and

12 seats, and the Congress is projected to win 1 to 3 seats, while the BJP is also expected to bag 1 to 3 seats.

AIMIM is predicted to get 0 to 1 seat.

While the Times NowVMR polls predicts 13 seats for the TRS, it predicted 2 seats for Congress and 1 for the BJP. Asaduddin Owaisi is projected to win 1 seat.

The Republic-C Voter exit polls predicts 14 seats for the TRS and 1 for the Congress, 1 for the BJP and 1 for the MIM.

The Republic-Jan Ki Baat poll has predicted the TRS getting 14 to 15 seats and the Congress 0 to 1. It predicted the BJP will get

1 seat and the MIM 1 seat. The CNN News18-IPSOS predicted that the TRS would win a comfortabl­e

12 to 14 seats, the Congress would pick up 1 to 2 seats, the BJP 1 to 2 seats and the AIMIM would get 1.

News24-Chanakya has predicted the TRS to win

14 to 16 seats, the Congress, the BJP and the MIM to win zero to 1 seat each.

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