Election 2019: TMC Busy With Post-Poll Calculations After Exit Polls
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has dismissed the exit polls as “gossip”.
Miffed with exit poll results, which predicted Prime Minister Narendra Modi returning to power, the Trinamool Congress is busy with post-poll calculations based on reports received from the districts, a senior party leader said on Monday.
Dismissing the exit poll predictions, he said, “We do not have to worry about these exit poll reports, which in most cases do not match. We have our internal party report. We also have reports from districts and each and every constituency.”
The TMC leadership is also in talks with various opposition parties in the country, people in know of developments said, requesting anonymity.
“Most of these exit polls are baseless and biased towards the BJP. We are not bothered about the exit polls. Talks are on with all the opposition parties on the post-poll scenario. It is for sure that the BJP has lost the election. The TMC will play an important role,” said another senior TMC leader, who did not wish to be named.
Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu, who has been meeting leaders of regional and opposition parties over the last few days, will meet TMC supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat on Monday.
In West Bengal, some of the exit polls suggested the TMC getting 24 seats, the BJP bagging 16, the Congress two and the Left Front drawing a blank.
Dubbing the exit polls as “gossip”, Banerjee had said on Sunday that she did not trust such surveys as the “game plan” was to use them for “manipulation” of electronic voting machines. The West Bengal unit of the BJP was quick to hit back, asking Banerjee to “stop living in denial” as the days of her TMC government in West Bengal were “numbered”.
Although senior TMC leaders sounded confident of winning the elections, some district leaders feel there had been an undercurrent against the TMC, which the top leadership of the party had “failed” to gauge.
“We don’t know whether these exit poll results will match with the actual results. But we can say this much that there has been an undercurrent against us this time. Now everything will be answered only on election results day,” a TMC leader from West Midnapore district said.