In stronghold, BJD faces a strong challenge

NEWDELHI:The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to increase its Lok Sabha seats in Odisha, exit polls showed on Sunday. India Today-Axis predicted 15 to 19 seats for the BJP in the state, which has 21 Lok Sabha seats.

News24-Today’s Chanakya gave BJP 11 to 17 seats. ABP News-Nielsen and Times NowVMR predicted 12 seats for the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD).

In 2014, BJD swept the Lok Sabha in the state and won 20 of the 21 seats. The BJP could win just one seat. It has since been trying to make inroads into states like Odisha to make up for the possible loss of seats in its western and northern Indian strongholds like Uttar Pradesh, where it peaked by winning 71 out of the 80 seats in 2014.

BJD Parliament member Prasanna Acharya said exit polls have mostly been off the mark. “In 2004, they said [Atal Bihari] Vajpayee would come back to power, but he lost. In 2014, they could not predict a sweep by the BJP. Let us wait for May 23 [when the Lok Sabha election results would be declared].”

BJP leader Suresh Pujari said Narendra Modi will definitely be the Prime Minister again and Odisha would contribute huge numbers to the party’s overall Lok Sabha tally.

“There was a massive undercurrent for Narendra Modi,” he said.

The prediction about the BJD’s tally ranged from two to 10. Most exit polls did not give more than one seat to the Congress.

Congress leader Navajyoti Patnaik said they would prefer to wait until the results are declared.

“I do not know the methodology of the exit polls. There was definitely an undercurrent against Modi, which the pollsters have failed to assess. I have no trust in the exit polls. Let us wait till May 23.”

To be sure, exit polls are often wrong in predicting seat shares, or final tallies, as seen latest in the assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh last year.

In 2004, they said [Atal Bihari] Vajpayee would come back to power, but he lost. In 2014, they could not predict a sweep by the BJP. Let us wait for May 23 [when the LS poll results would be declared] PRASANNA ACHARYA, BJD leader