Political Diary

Exit polls by national TV channels in effect predicted that TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu had been done in by Chiranjeevi’s Prajarajyam, leading to gains for Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s Congress. They also foresaw that Congress would be kept in check - somewhat - in the Assembly polls but was well set to bag the lion’s share of seats in the Lok Sabha from AP. The NDTV exit poll foresaw a strong anti-incumbency against the YSR government with the Congress vote percentage falling by as much as 11 per cent, but this would not translate into loss of seats. This because the biggest beneficiary of that would be Chiranjeevi and not TDP. It predicted that PRP would get 18 per cent of the votes which included the entire 11 per cent that the Congress lost and seven per cent that was with TDP in the last election. In terms of numbers for the Lok Sabha, the exit poll gave the Congress 29 seats, TDP 10 seats, TRS two seats and PRP one. The CNN-IBN post-poll survey gave the Congress 20 Lok Sabha seats while for the Assembly, it said the Congress will get 38 percentage of the votes. However, this will be balanced by the TDP getting 31 per cent and the TRS seven per cent. It gave the PRP 14 per cent of the vote share. This survey too hinted at a hung Assembly. The Headlines Today exit poll gave the Congress 22 seats, TDP 14, TRS five and MIM one seat. Thus according to it, the PRP will not open the account as far as the Lok Sabha tally is concerned. According to Star News, the Congress will get 23 Lok Sabha seats, TDP 10 seats, TRS five seats, Left three and MIM one seat. According to Times Now, the Congress and TDP will get 15 Lok Sabha seats each, TRS five, Left two seats and MIM one. This is the only channel that predicted four LS seats for PRP. According to analysts, while Chiranjeevi is way off his mark in claiming that the PRP would get simple majority and that he would become the chief minister, his playing the role of a king-maker in the state politics seems very much on the cards. “In a hung Assembly, Chiranjeevi can call the shots if he gets anywhere between 40 to 60 seats,” said one. While the Congress was reasonably happy with the predictions, it was not all cheers at the CM’s camp office. “Despite the Congress doing well in the Lok Sabha, more even results in the assembly is not good news for the CM,” said a loyalist. The TDP, meanwhile, said it would prefer to wait for the actual results to come.