Congress slams exit poll results

MANDATE 2004

Rejecting the exit poll results of yesterday's first phase of polling for 140 Lok Sabha seats as "far from reality", the Congress on Wednesday claimed it was heading for a "decisive victory in these elections" and would approach afresh the Election Commission for a ban on these exit polls.

The Congress strategy committee, which met here this evening to review the first phase polling and strategy for the coming three phases, was firmly of the view that the exit polls were "absurd" and these had nothing to do with the "ground reality."

Later briefing reporters, Ahmed Patel, political secretary to the Congress president, said the party estimated that it would at least get five to ten seats more than the projected seats for the NDA by various TV channels in their exit polls.

"The Congress has taken note of the various exit polls. There is wide divergence among these exit polls. The divergence is so large as to make them almost meaningless. Even though the exit polls show a vastly improved performance for the Congress as compared to the different opinion polls conducted earlier, the Congress does not accept the veracity of these polls both in terms of methodology and results," Patel said.

"The Congress has also taken note of mischievous attempts being made by the BJP and its cheerleaders to manufacture a victory for the BJP and the NDA. The Congress and its allies are confident of registering a decisive victory in these elections," Patel said.

"The ground-level feedback and political assessment of Congress is that it will improve its position in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand, it is gaining handsomely in Andhra Pradesh, its performance in Maharashtra is very strong and it will retain its position in Assam and Karnataka," he said.

The meeting, chaired by Manmohan Singh in the absence of Sonia Gandhi, who is away on an election tour, was attended among others by Ambika Soni, R K Dhawan, Motilal Vora, M L Fotedar, Prithivraj Chauhan, Jairam Ramesh and Anand Sharma.

To a question about Congress action regarding exit polls, Patel said his party would wait for a reply from the Election Commission to its representation for 48 hours and then decide on its course of action.