Kolkata: The Trinamul Congress, which has dubbed exit polls as “gossip”, said on Monday its internal reports from districts and every constituencies clearly say the party will win this time too.
Unfazed by exit polls projections, chief minister Mamata Banerjee led TMC exuded confidence that it would play a major role in the formation of a new government for which it is in touch with various Opposition parties.
Some of the exit polls have suggested TMC getting 24 seats, the BJP bagging 16, the Congress two and the Left Front drawing a blank.
West Bengal has a total of 42 Lok Sabha seats, third highest after Uttar Pradesh 80 and Maharashtra’s 48.
At the national level too, exit polls have forecast a second term for Narendra Modi as Prime Minister.
The TMC supremo had on Sunday dubbed the exit polls as “gossip”.
Ms Banerjee said she did not trust such surveys as the “game plan” was to use them for “manipulation” of EVMs.
Dismissing the exit poll predictions, TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said Monday, party is not worried about these exit poll reports, which in most cases do not match with the reality.
“We have our internal party reports. We also have reports from districts and each and every constituency and it clearly says we will win this time too.” he said.
A senior TMC leader, who did wish to be named, said “We are in touch with various Opposition parties including SP, BSP, Congress, TDP, AAP and many other parties for post poll situation.
According to our calculations, a government of Opposition parties will come to power. There is hardly any chance of BJP returning to power.”
The BJP leadership, however, mocked TMC’s effort to cobble up an anti-BJP alliance.
“As per exit polls and people's mood, the TMC has lost the battle. But it seems they are yet to give up their dream of Mamata Banerjee being the next Prime Minister. The fact is she should stop dreaming of it as days of TMC government are numbered in Bengal,” BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said.
The Bengal BJP asked Ms Banerjee to “stop living in denial” as the days of her TMC government in West Bengal were “numbered”. In a tweet it also asked Ms Banerjee to stop giving lame excuses.
Although senior TMC leaders sounded confident of winning the polls, some district leaders feel there had been an undercurrent against the TMC, which the top leadership of the party “failed” to gauge.
We don’t know whether these exit poll results will match with the actual results. But, we can say this much that there has been an undercurrent against us this time. Now everything will be answered only on May 23, a TMC leader of West Midnapore district, said.
After a good performance in panchayats election and some state level bypolls last year, BJP emerged as principal challenger to TMC in Bengal in the current general election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah addressed several rallies to boost the party chance in Bengal from where it had only two MPs in 2014.
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