Rahul Gandhi rubbishes exit poll predictions, says such forecasts were seen in Bihar too

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Friday dismissed the exit polls that aired on Thursday saying the Samajwadi Party-Congress combine will win the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2017. Like Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, Rahul Gandhi, too, cited the exit polls of Bihar Assembly Elections 2015 and said, "Our alliance is winning. Such exit polls we saw in Bihar also. We will talk tomorrow. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has also said that the party and its ally the Samajwadi Party will win the polls. The counting of votes for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections will begin at 8:00 am on March 11.

Not just Rahul Gandhi, his ally and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has also said that he is confident of a victory in the state. However, he even went on to say that he was ready for an alliance with Mayawati's BSP if there's a hung Assembly in Uttar Pradesh. In an interview with BBC, Akhilesh said, "We are confident of winning UP. But it is a given that we will take support from Mayawati if there is a hung House. We will not let the BJP rule Uttar Pradesh.

Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav, too, has rejected the exit polls by television news channels that showed the Bharatiya Janata Party winning or leading in the state. Speaking to news channels on Friday, Yadav said that the SP is 100 per cent winning elections and even claimed that the exit polls were changed under pressure.

The exit poll results on Thursday indicated at major gains for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2017 with some even giving a clear mandate to the party. The Times Now-VMR Exit Poll results predicts that the BJP is likely to emerge as a big winner in Uttar Pradesh. BJP to win 190-210 seats, the SP-Congress 110-130 and BSP 57-74, Others - 8, it says. The India Today-Axis poll has predicted a landslide victory for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh with the party expected to win a whopping 251-279 seats.

The India News-MRC exit poll has pointed at a hung Assembly in Uttar Pradesh, with the BJP emerging as the single largest party - BJP 185 seats, SP-Congress 120, BSP 90, Others 8. The India TV-CVoter exit poll also points at a hung assembly in the state as it predicted 155-167 seats for the BJP, 135-147 seats for SP-Congress, 81-93 seats for BSP and 8-20 seats for others.

The elections for the 404-seat Uttar Pradesh Assembly were held in seven phases between February 4 and March 8 and a voter turnout of over 60 per cent was recorded. The results will be announced on march 11.