Congress losing ground, BJP sitting tight in Karnataka, say exit polls
BENGALURU: In a major disappointment for the Congress-JDS coalition in Karnataka, various exit polls on Sunday gave the combine only between seven and nine seats in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections.
The opposition BJP looks to hold on to its position, but may even throw up a surprise, bagging over 20 seats.In the run-up to the elections, both sides had sounded confident of outdoing the other.
While Congress leaders had been saying the alliance will win at least 20 seats, the BJP sounded more optimistic saying they will improve their tally with over 22 seats. Voting for all the 28 seats in Karnataka took place on April 18 and 23.
The NDTV poll of polls shows the BJP almost repeating its performance in Karnataka with 18 seats, nine going to the Congress-JDS and one to Others.
As per the IANS-CVOTER exit poll, the BJP is expected to win 18 seats in state while Congress can get seven with two seats going to its ally JD(S) and Others getting one seat.
For the BJP, it seems to be improving upon the tally of 17 seats it had won in the state in 2014. It is a loss of two seats for Congress, which had won nine in 2014 while no change is expected in the strength of JD-S.
The projections are a setback to the ruling Congress-JD-S coalition and could have ramifications in the state politics.
The India Today-Axis exit poll was more optimistic about the BJP putting up a better show.
As per its projection, BJP is likely to win anywhere between 21 and 25 out of the 28 seats, improving its tally from the 17 seats it had won in 2014.
On the other hand, the Congress-JDS alliance will get only three to six seats, it said.