With early trends showing a lead in Assam, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today expressed confidence of trouncing the Tarun Gogoi regime and forming the government for the first time in the state.
"We are maintaining lead in Assam, we are confident that we will win in Assam with two-third majority. In Kerala, our position is gradually increasing. We are leading in few seats. In the same way, we are leading in few seats in West Bengal. One thing is very clear-our vote share will increase everywhere," BJP leader Zafar Islam told ANI.
Taking a dig at the Congress, he said the grand old party is not behaving like a national party but rather a small party.
"It is managing to gain a lead through piggybacking. Everywhere, we have a leadership position and our vote share will increase. We will benefit this time," he added.
Echoing similar sentiments, BJP spokesperson G.V.L. Narasimha Rao said the trends coming from all states seem to be broadly in conformity with the exit polls that were telecast by various television channels a couple of days ago.
"These are states where the BJP had not been a force in the past, but despite that we are heading towards forming a government in Assam that's a huge gain for the BJP. I think our performance in all the states would be far better than our performance in 2011. This is our confidence and the initial trends bear out the trend," he added.
Meanwhile, Mahila Congress president Shobha Ojha expressing confidence said they had been in power in Assam for the last 15 years, but will form the government this time as well despite the anti-incumbency factor.
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Stating there has been the trend of electing alternate governments in Kerala, Ojha said the Congress is upbeat courtesy the good work done by the Oomen Chandy government and added that the people would yet again give their blessings to the grand old party.
The Congress leader, however, refused to comment on the trend of the exit polls.
"The exit polls had failed in Bihar and Delhi. So, we cannot trust the exit polls. The results will be out soon," she said.
Ojha further said that the Congress-DMK alliance would form the government in Tamil Nadu, while the grand old party would also improve its tally in West Bengal.
In Assam, the counting of votes is being held at 51 centres across the state.
The fate of 1064 candidates, including Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, BJP's chief ministerial candidate Sarbananda Sonowal and AIUDF president Badruddin Ajmal will be revealed today.
As per the latest information, the BJP is leading in Dibrugarh,Moran,Lahoal and Tingkhong assembly seats.
The BJP is leading in 19 seats in Assam, Congress in eight, AIUDF in two, BPF in six, AGP in nine and others in two.
In a dramatic see-saw, the early trends in Kerala as the counting for the assembly polls is underway saw a neck-to-neck battle between the Congress led-UDF and the LDF, while the BJP failed to make any impact despite aggressive campaigning by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah.
Meanwhile in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK was leading in 93 seats and DMK in 76 seats while the others were yet to open their accounts.
the Trinamool Congress (TMC) established its supreme dominance in West Bengal, as according to latest Election Commission data TMC stands at 124, , Left alliance-34, BJP-3.
The Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements for providing online information of trends and results of counting.
It is expected that the process will be completed within six to seven hours and a final picture will emerge by noon.