Congress will perform better than what exit polls say: Jairam Ramesh

A day after exit polls said the ruling Congress Party at the centre is headed for a rout, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Tuesday that his party will do far better than what the exit polls are predicting. "Congress has been out-funded by the BJP, but inspite of this hype, Congress will do much better than what exit poll figures are predicting," Ramesh told media here.

Terming the Gujarat model as 'Mukhota' (Fake), Ramesh said: "Deliberate polarization was the actual campaign strategy (of BJP) as reflected in Muzaffarnagar (riots), the Gujarat Model was a 'mukhota'. His reactions came a day after almost all exit polls predicted a BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) win.

The exit polls are projecting the NDA well past the halfway mark of 272. Most of the polls showed the UPA, getting between 101 and 148 seats. The BJP's biggest gains are in Uttar Pradesh where at least two surveys have predicted the party to win 54 seats. Similarly in Bihar, the exit poll results dismissed any chance of the RJD's resurgence, giving a clear lead to the NDA.

The surveys also suggested the BJP winning more seats than the Congress in Odisha, where Naveen Patnaik's BJD has been projected to win a majority of the seats. In its maiden election, the Aam Aadmi Party is tipped to pick up an average of five seats and an all-India vote share of about four per cent.

The exit polls also suggested that Mamata Banerjee's TMC and Jayalalithaa's AIADMK would be the only two other political parties with more than 20 seats in the new house.