The RLD contested the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in alliance with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party. Most exit polls have predicted another victory for the BJP in the northern state, while the RLD-SP alliance will emerge as the runner-up.
08 MARCH: President of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) Jayant Choudhary on Tuesday said exit polls take a view which he does not agree with and it is also a way of creating mental pressure. His remarks come after most exit polls have predicted the return of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh – which is seen as the most important region in India’s political game.
Moreover, the RLD chief, whose party fought a month-long assembly election in the northern state with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP), wondered where the exit poll figures came from.
“There is a process for exit polls. No exit poll person was seen at the polling stations, I don’t know from where they got the data,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Choudhary said that till the time the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are not opened, it is not possible for anyone to know the results of the assembly elections.
Earlier in the day, the RLD chief took to Twitter to share his views on the exit polls. Taking recourse to subtle sarcasm, Choudhary wrote, “exit poll kya karegi jab vote koko le gayi? (What will the exit polls do when koko has taken the votes?)
The koko is a fictional bird from the folklore of western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
“The coalition workers have struggled a lot. Now, cooperate patiently in the counting of votes,” his tweet was roughly translated from Hindi and further read.
The final phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections ended on Monday (March 7), and the counting of the same will take place on March 10. Most exit polls like India Today-Axis My India and Times Now-Veto 2022 show that the saffron camp is expected to get 71-101 and 225 seats respectively. The SP is predicted to emerge as the runner-up after Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress.
In 2017, the BJP won over 300 seats in the 403-Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The SP and Congress alliance had got 55 seats, while the BSP was successful in winning only 19 seats.