PANJIM:
News of exit polls which have across the board gone in favour of the National Democratic Alliance were received by politicos in Goa on expected lines - elated acceptance or angry rejection, depending on which side of the fence the politician stands.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State president Vinay Tendulkar, who is also Rajya Sabha member exclaimed in elation that it showed India's electorate had confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.The exit polls were out within hours of the end of polling for the seventh and final phase of the general election on Sunday. Also voting in that phase was Panaji to choose the successor to the late Manohar Parrikar.
No sooner polling ended at 6 pm in Panjim, residents of the area living along the foothills of Altinho and along its slopes considered the heartland of BJP's support base, heard a celebratory bursting of crackers. Many thought it was the saffron party's candidate Siddharth Kuncolienkar's band of workers signalling an advance victory lap. Turns out the celebration quotient of that bravado was inspired more by the shape of the national exit polls.
While the thumbs-up that the exit poll numbers have given Modi was one reason, local BJP workers were animated more by the claim that both the Lok Sabha seats were coming to their kitty.
On the other hand, the national exit poll indicators were angrily dismissed by the Congress claiming that the pollsters have failed to take into account the sizable section of voters that prefers to exercise the democratic right in absolute silence.
Although the Congress claims it will win both the Lok Sabha seats, insiders are certain of the South Goa seat where veteran Francisco Sardinha is taking on sitting MP Narendra Sawaikar.
Congress' State president Girish Chodankar, who was also the party's candidate for the North Goa seat, said the exit poll could possibly have been manipulated to erase doubts of a potential EVM rigging conspiracy.
"I never believed EVM tampering all this while but the way Exit Polls are managed to set ground for Modi victory all over India, and especially our South Goa seat which everyone, including BJP workers believe they are losing, I have fear of EVM manipulation," Chodankar said.
Chodankar refrained from commenting on the North Goa seat where he himself is the Congress candidate.
Sawaikar, when contacted by The Goan, claimed that nationally a pro-NDA feel is evident and as the exit polls have predicted a BJP-led government seems to be returning to power.
"I have done work for five years and I have got good response from the people," Sawaikar said, adding that he hopes the South Goa seat will be retained in keeping with the Exit Poll claims.
Both Tendulkar and Sawaikar said, the results will be the outcome of the hard work of the karyakatas and also a tribute to late Parrikar who had ably led the BJP in Goa for over two decades.
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INSET
Exit polls are not necessarily correct: Jose Philip
VASCO: Nationalist Congress Party state president and former minister Jose Philip D’Souza, on Monday, said that the exit poll figures claiming that the BJP-led government will get an absolute majority and form government at the centre without a coalition is not true and not worth believing.
Jose Philip while maintaining that the exit polls cannot be challenged or debated upon informed reporters that most of the times, exit polls could go wrong with the numbers.
"I personally do not go by exit poll figures because the people who have voted do not confess to the party who they voted for and as such, the survey taken after speaking to a section of voters could go miserably wrong. The election results will anyways be out on Thursday (May 23) and facts will be revealed as to what the nation has decided. With a vast experience of politics, I can easily say that some exit polls which have shown BJP with around 360 seats is totally wrong. Some exit polls have shown that both Goa seats will go to the BJP and this too is not worth believing in. I feel that it is extremely difficult for the BJP to win both seats in Goa, especially South Goa where there is a wave against the present BJP government and its anti-people governance," Jose Philip stated.
Suggesting that people switch off their television sets, stay away from social media and wait till 23rd May to get the confirmed results, Jose Philip added, "If the exit poll figures are correct, then we cannot do much and question the people's mandate, as it is the people who elect the MPs who subsequently contribute to the government at the Centre in running the country for the next five years."
