Exit polls signal huge maturing of Indian democracy, says Jaitley
NEWDELHI: Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said that Sunday’s exit polls signalled “a huge maturing of Indian democracy” and listed six takeaways in his blog titled The Message of Exit Polls.
Taking a dig at the opposition, Jaitley said that voters are no longer willing to trust a “coalition of rivals” and do not elect a hung Parliament where ugly and untenable coalitions have a role to play.
Most exit polls have forecast another term for Prime Minister Modi, with some of them projecting that Bjp-led NDA will get more than 300 seats to comfortably cross the majority mark of 272 in the Lok Sabha.
“Many of us may continue to squabble over correctness and accuracy of the Exit Polls. The hard reality is that when multiple Exit Polls convey the same message, the direction of the result broadly would be in consonance with the message...
“If the Exit Polls are read along with the 2014 election results, it would be clear that there is a huge maturing of Indian democracy taking place,” the minister wrote.
“If the results of the Exit Polls and final results on the 23rd May, 2019 are in the same direction, the Opposition’s fake issue of the EVMS would also lose its non-existent rationale,” he wrote.
He also reiterated that the Congress first family is no longer an asset, but an albatross around the neck of the party. “Without the family, they don’t get the crowd, with it they don’t get the votes.”
Senior Congress leader, Abhishek Singvi, said, “He who laughs last laughs most. Blogging prematurely and celebrating before the due date is dangerous and presumptuous. This anxiety to clutch at exit polls when the real thing will be known less than 48 hours later tells its own story,” he said.