Exit Polls 2019: BJP set to return to power, NDA tally seen at 242-336

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to retain power with various exit polls predicting a majority for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance. At least two exit polls forecast a tally of 336 seats for the NDA including one by News18-IPSOS which sees 276 seats going to the BJP.

News X TV put out the most conservative numbers for the right wing party, predicting the tally of its NDA combine to come at 242 against United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) 164.

Some polls expect the saffron party to secure a majority on its own while some said the alliance, and not the party alone, would get past the halfway mark in the 543-seat Lok Sabha.

Polls by News18-IPSOS and Zee TV expect the NDA to form the government with 336 seats. News18-IPSOS sees the Congress managing to get only 46 seats while others are seen winning 124 seats. The Zee TV exit poll gave the Congress and its allies 60 seats.

A poll by Times Now forecast the BJP-led alliance getting 306 of 543 seats. The Congress and its allies are seen getting 132 seats, according to the poll.

A Republic TV-C Voter exit poll sees the NDA getting 287 seats and the Congress-led UPA securing 128 seats with Mahagathbandhan of Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party bagging 40 seats. Others are expected to get 87 seats.

The bitterly-fought seven-phase general elections, stretching over 39 days, ended on May 19. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seen as favourite to return to power, riding on a pro-incumbency wave.

In a major shift of stance from 2014 when Modi rode to power on his ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ agenda, he this time sought another term on the basis of strong and clean governance, rooting out corruption, providing social welfare schemes directly to the beneficiaries and muscular nationalism.

The opposition ran its campaign accusing the government of polarising the country on communal lines, the highly unpopular demonetization that led to job losses, hurting small traders, ignoring the farmers while catering to industrialists and mismanaging the economy.