New Delhi: A few hours from now fortunes will fluctuate. If the exit poll predictions are close to accurate, the country could witness the rise of a chaiwalla and a dynasty at political crossroads. BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi, 63, not only turned around the BJP’s fortunes with a presidential-style campaign never seen before, he also brought the saffron camp within striking distance of taking power at the Centre — if the exit polls are to be believed.
On the other hand, led by the Nehru-Gandhi clan — Rahul, Sonia and Priyanka, the exit polls have predicted the worst-ever performance for the Congress. With the Lok Sabha results due to be out on Friday, hectic political activity has begun. While the BJP, relying on the exit polls, are preparing “laddus” and assembling crackers to celebrate a “historic victory”, the knives are out in the Congress.
Yet for the BJP, despite the euphoria there is some amount of nervousness too. If the NDA stops at 230-240 seats, the ecstasy in the saffron camp could well turn into agony, particularly in a scenario when it has to rely on AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa for government formation.
The Election Commission said on Thursday that the counting exercise, to be held at 989 counting centres, was likely to be completed by 5 pm on Friday, and that trends would be available from 11 am.
The postal ballots will be counted first. Under the EC guidelines, half an hour after postal ballots are counted, the process of counting votes from the EVMs will begin. By midday, a clear trend is likely to emerge. As for technicalities, the “ballot unit” is switched on in the presence of senior poll officials and counting agents of candidates, and the result command keyed in to get the results per machine.
Incidentally, this was the first time that the option of “none of the above”, or NOTA, was introduced on the EVMs. The 2014 LS polls witnessed the highest-ever turnout, with 66.38 per cent of an estimated 814 million voters exercising their franchise. Around 8,000 candidates were in the fray, in the largest-ever electoral exercise held in India’s history. In the Congress camp, some senior leaders are “upset” over the way the campaign was conducted, and some senior party leader have reportedly “complained” to party chief Sonia Gandhi that they were “not given a proper platform” to communicate with the media.
On the hitlist is the media cell, headed by Ajay Maken. The elections for the 16th Lok Sabha were marked by a high-decibel campaign with top leaders going for each others’ jugular. Also, the model code of conduct was flouted with impunity by almost all top leaders, ranging from Mr Modi to Mr Rahul Gandhi. This election also saw Priyanka Gandhi Vadra leading from the front, and taking the battle to Mr Modi’s turf at a time when the Congress appeared completely outwitted, outsmarted and outmanoeuvred by the BJP’s propaganda machinery.
Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh had become the epicentre for the 2014 electoral battle, with Mr Modi contesting from the temple city. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, who had taken on Mr Modi on this turf, caused some worry in the saffron camp as he drew huge crowds. A majority of Muslims in the constituency were believed to have shifted their loyalties to the AAP, that might being down Mr Modi’s victory margin, and enable Mr Kejriwal to race past the Congress and finish second in a five-cornered contest, that also included the SP and BSP.
