BJP is expected to form the government again but with a reduced majority
- Posted on June 1, 2024
- News
- By Arijit Dutta
- 129 Views
Exit polls suggest BJP-led NDA will retain power in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, but with a reduced majority, while the opposition remains fragmented.
As the marathon seven-phase Lok Sabha elections ended today, various exit polls are suggesting that the ruling party BJP headed by PM Narendra Modi is set for another term but with fewer seats in the lower house of the Indian parliament.
According to the India Today-Axis exit poll, the BJP-led NDA is set to secure between 279 to 335 seats, well above the required 272 to form the government in the 543-member Lok Sabha. However, this would be a decrease from the BJP’s tally of 303 seats in 2019.
The Republic TV-Jan Ki Baat exit poll has projected the NDA in the same range of 276-332 seats. At the higher end of these projections, the BJP might be just within touching distance of forming another single-party majority government.
Other exit polls depict a much closer contest, the CVoter-ABP News survey gives 267 to the NDA and 154 to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The Times Now-VMR had predicted the NDA seat range of 242-285 and the UPA seat range of 147-188.
If these predictions turn out to be correct, regional players such as Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, and others can be the kingmakers in the next government.
The main battlegrounds will be Uttar Pradesh, where pollsters differ in the BJP’s performance compared to the previous year, and West Bengal, where the Trinamool and BJP may have a close contest.
The actual results will be announced on 4th June by the Election Commission of India. Until then, the exit polls can only provide a broad preliminary assessment derived from a survey of the voters after they have exercised their franchise.
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People came out to vote in large numbers this year and the overall poll percentage is said to have crossed 67 percent in the seven-phase polls that began on April 19.
