Exit polls 2019: NDA will sweep Tamil Nadu, insists AIADMK's Edappadi K Palaniswami

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would sweep the elections in Tamil Nadu contrary to the indication of the exit polls, the state's Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has claimed. Exit polls had widely predicted a massive victory for the Congress-DMK front in the southern state.

Palaniswami, who is the co-coordinator of the AIADMK, said to reporters at Salem airport, "Ahead of the 2016 Assembly polls, the media said that the we will lose and get only three seats that fall under the Salem segment. But we ended up winning ten seats. This is the nature of exit polls."

Referring to the poor performance projected for the NDA in Tamil Nadu, Palaniswami said that these were not exit polls but numbers being forced upon the people. He also expressed confidence about the AIADMK and its allies sweeping the 38 parliamentary constituencies in Tamil Nadu and the lone seat in Puducherry, while also winning all the 22 bypolls to vacant Assembly seats. 

When quizzed about the projection of the exit polls at the national level, he said, "I know only about the situation in Tamil Nadu, and I'm saying this as the leader of a regional party". 

His main rival, DMK chief MK Stalin, for his part said his party completely ignores exit polls, irrespective of whether they are favourable to his party or not. He added that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu had spoken to him many times, and had also expressed support to the DMK. 

Stalin also shot down questions over a reported meeting of opposition parties in New Delhi on May 23, when counting of votes for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections would take place. "Who told you that the meeting is on the 23rd? You yourselves are putting out that news. Only after the results on 23rd evening can we take a call on those meetings and that's when it would be useful," he said.

Stalin was the first leader outside the Congress to propose Rahul Gandhi as a prime ministerial candidate. The DMK, along with allies Congress and the Left, hopes to make big gains in Tamil Nadu as the AIADMK faces anti-incumbency after wins in the 2011 and 2016 Assembly polls, and the 2014 Parliamentary polls. These polls also gain significance in the southern state, as it is the first in the absence of the state's veteran leaders J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi, who died in 2016 and 2018 respectively.