Vijayawada: Candidates who have contested in the polls, leaders of political parties, bookies, punters and cadre of Telugu Desam and YSR Congress have been eagerly waiting for the exit poll results that would be announced on May 19 evening.
The punters, who have already betted based on various reports and surveys, are getting ready for ‘reverse betting’ under which they will once again bet on the basis of exit polls.
Former MP Lagadapati Rajagopal is expected to release his exit poll survey after the completion of final phase polling on Sunday evening.
Earlier, in the 2014 election, he predicted 115-125 seats for Telugu Desam-BJP alliance and the alliance came into power by winning 106 seats. But his predictions in the recently held Telangana elections were proved totally wrong. Hence, AP Chief Minister N. Chandra-babu Naidu conducted four surveys that predicted victory for TD.
On the other hand, majority of the surveys have been predicting victory for YSRC. Mr Naidu has been trying to build confidence among the TD cadre, about retaining power, by asking them not to trust the survey reports but majority of the TD cadre have been suspicious about the TD High Command’s claims and have been eagerly waiting for the exit poll results.
Mr Naidu started poll trends review of 25 MP and 175 Assembly seats on May 5 but after conducting review meetings in Rajahmundry, Srikakulam and other seats, Mr Naidu cancelled the reviews.
According to the sources, TD leaders lodged complaints against their leaders, who have been alleging working against TD candidates in the election and some leaders alleged that TD leaders have been colluding with YSRC in various seats.
The sources said that TD cadre did not have hope about landslide victory or retaining power and have been eagerly waiting for results of exit polls on Sunday evening.
A senior TD leader, on the condition of anonymity, said that TD High Command and TD leaders have been claiming that voters remained in long queues till midnight which is a plus point to TD but actually, polling was held till midnight in only 15-20 polling booths. He said that there would be 1,500-1,700 voters in a polling booth. So, there is no truth about huge polling for TD till midnight.
Hence, the cadre distrusts TD’s victory claims and have been eagerly waiting for exit poll results.
According to sources, YSRC president Y.S. JaganMohan Reddy and political strategist Prasanth Kishor also conducted surveys that revealed 101-110 seats for their party. YSRC aspirants are confident about their victory. YSRC candidates, leaders and cadre have been distrusting Rajagopal’s exit poll survey as biased and have been stating that they are waiting for other exit poll results to get a clear idea about the majority of seats.
YSRC candidates A. Ramakrishna Reddy, Mohammed Mustafa, G. Srinivas Reddy and others have been expressing confidence about YSRC’s victory and said that exit poll results in Telangana were an exact prediction. Hence, they are expecting the same in AP also.
The leaders and cadre of Jana Sena, who have been expecting 25-30 MLA seats, are also eager to know the exit polls. JS leaders said that exit polls are like trailers that will give a synopsis of election results. Hence, Jana Sena cadre has been waiting for the same.
