NEW DELHI, May 20 (WNM staff/Newswires) - The parliamentary elections in India seem to bring prime minister Narendra Modi, but these polls should be read with caution.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is poised to return to power and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party likely to emerge as the largest party in parliament, according to exit polls the Financial Times reports. The exit polls were released on Sunday night after voting in the seventh and final phase of a protracted election that began on April 11. Around 900m people were eligible to cast ballots during the mammoth process.
All exit polls released at the conclusion of the seven-phase 17th general election predicted a second term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The counting of votes will take place on May 23, The Hindu reports.
Exit polls have a long history of going wrong in India. According to Praveen Chakravarty, chairperson of the Congress Data Analytics Department, who compared exit polls with actual outcomes posted on Twitter: “Around 80% of exit poll seat predictions for all parties in large state elections since 2014 are wrong.” Exit polls are generally considered more accurate than opinion polls conducted before actual voting.
The polling process for India's 17th general elections came to an end Sunday, with the final set of more than 50 parliamentary constituencies going to polls in the seventh and final phase.
The elections took place in seven phases. The first phase was held on April 11, the second phase on April 18, the third phase of polling on April 23, the fourth phase on April 29, the fifth phase on May 6, the sixth phase on May 12, and the seventh and last phase of polling took place on Sunday.
Votes polled during all the seven phases will be counted on May 23, but according to an Election Commission of India (ECI) official, the final results might be announced by the following day.
There were over 900 million voters who were eligible to cast their votes in more than 1 million polling stations set up across the length and breadth of the country in a bid to hold peaceful, free and fair elections.
According to the ECI figures, there were around 84.3 million new voters who were added since the last parliamentary polls held in 2014, out of which 15 million voters were in the age ground of 18-19 years.
There are more than 2,300 registered political parties in India, out of which there are seven "recognised national" parties and 59 "recognised state" parties which participated in the general elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi remained the star campaigner for the main ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as he traversed across the country in over 50 days. He is learnt to have addressed more than 100 public rallies.
On the other hand, the opposition's campaign was led by Indian National Congress (INC) President Rahul Gandhi, who is learnt to have addressed as many as 153 public rallies.