Its election results day and states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal have overturned the Exit Poll predictions by huge margins. Barely a few days after various exit polls indicated overwhelming majority for Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and NDA (National Democratic Alliance), the counting results have reversed the predictions and how! Some exit polls had even predicted that BJP could very well touch the 'ab ki baar 400 paar' mark.
While the exit polls had generously gave 365 Lok Sabha seats to the NDA, the NDA is winning 291 seats as of now. And at 241, BJP is staring at a huge void between the current number and 272 seats predicted by exit polls. Three major states which have given starkly contrasting results in comparison to the exit polls are – Maharashtra, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
In UP, on average, exit polls gave the BJP 68 seats and INDIA bloc (Samajwadi Party, Congress) only 12 seats. Overturning the poll predictions, The Samajwadi Party is leading in 36 seats and the Congress in 7. This brings their total to 43, while BJP has gained 33 seats.
In Maharashtra, exit polls had predicted 22 to 35 seats for the Mahayuti (Bharatiya Janata Party-led) and 15 to 26 seats for (MVA Maha Vikas Agadhi). However, INDI Alliance is leading in 29 seats - with Congress in 11, Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena in 10, and Sharad Pawar's NCP in 8. On the other hand, NDA is leading at 18 seats, with BJP at 11, Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena at 6 and Ajit Pawar's NCP with 1 seat.
In West Bengal too, exit polls had predicted massive defeat for the ruling Trinamool Congress. The polls had predicted 21 to 26 seats for the BJP and 16 to 19 seats for TMC. However, smashing the predicted numbers, TMC is leading in 29 seats, whereas BJP is down to 12 seats.
