Exit polls out Wednesday evening were not good news for the Congress with nearly all of them predicting big wins for the BJP in the all four heartland states that went to the polls in November-December.
Polls for state assemblies were held in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi whose results will be out Dec 8, while Mizoram's results will be out Dec 9.
The exit polls predict that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will wrest Rajasthan from the Congress and retain Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, while its chances in Delhi are very bright.
The India TV-CVoter exit poll said the BJP will win in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and will be slightly short of majority in Chhattisgarh, while the CNN-IBN-The Week survey said the BJP will win in all three states.
The BJP is set to win the assembly polls in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, the ABP News-Neilson exit poll said. It did not give the outcome of surveys in the other three states.
According to the India TV-CVoter exit polls, in Rajasthan, the BJP is projected to win 130 seats of the total 199, while the ruling Congress was projected to manage just 48 seats.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) would win four seats, and the other parties 17 seats.
According to the CNN-IBN-The Week post-poll survey released Wednesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party was set to make a comeback in Rajasthan by winning 126-136 seats. It predicts 49-57 seats for the Congress in the state.
The BJP had won 78 seats in the state in 2008 elections and the Congress had grabbed 96.
The exit poll also said that the BJP will retain Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
According to India TV-CVoter exit polls in Delhi till 1 p.m., the BJP is projected to win 29 of the 70 assembly seats, the Congress 21, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) 16 seats, and the BSP two seats.
In 2008, the Congress had won 43, the BJP 23 seats, and the BSP two.
According to the ABP-Neilson survey, the BJP is set to win simple majority in Delhi with 37 seats and a vote share of 33 per cent in the 70-member house.
It said that while the Congress will get 16 seats, Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP will get around 15 seats.
AAP appears to have dented the vote share of the Congress, which in 2008 got vote share of 40.46 percent as compared to 28 percent in 2013.
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had been ruling Delhi for 15 years.
Polling was held in Delhi Wednesday.
In Madhya Pradesh where the polling was held Nov 25, the BJP under Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is set to make a hat-trick with 138 seats out of 230 and a vote share of 39 percent, said the ABP-Neilson survey.
The Congress is likely to get 80 seats with a vote share of 33 percent.
The BJP got 148 seats and a vote share of 37.9 per cent in the 2008 assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh.
The Congress got 66 seats with a vote share of 32.1 per cent.
According to India TV-CVoter survey, in Madhya Pradesh the BJP is projected to retain power with 128 of the total 230 seats. The Congress could win 92 seats and the BSP six seats.
In 2008, the BJP had won 143 seats, the Congress 71 and the BSP seven.
According to India TV-CVoter survey, in Chhattisgarh, the ruling BJP is likely to be short of simple majority. The BJP is projected to win 44 of the total 90 seats.
The Congress is likely to win 41 seats.
In 2008, the BJP had won 50 seats and the Congress 38 seats.
But the CNN-IBN-The Week survey for Chhattisgarh predicted the BJP winning 45-55 seats in the 90-member assembly.
It said the Congress would win 32-40 seats while other parties were likely to get 1-7 seats.
The BJP had won 50 seats in 2008 polls in Chhattisgarh and the Congress had won 38.
The assembly results are being seen as a semi-final ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and could impact the prospects of the two national parties, especially the ruling Congress which is grappling with the anti-incumbency of two terms at the centre.
However, many leaders of both parties said the assembly elections were not necessarily a barometer of the national mood and the winning parties in these could often turn up losers in the Lok Sabha polls and vice versa.
However, the results may act as a boost for the BJP and its prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi, who campaigned energetically in all four states. If the exit poll results indeed prove correct, these could mean a further setback for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and throw question mark on the continued vote-drawing abilities of the Gandhi family.
