The Congress on Saturday alleged that the exit polls predicting the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance’s comfortable win in the Lok Sabha elections were “psychological games” that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “masterminded”.

“The man whose exit is certain on June 4th has had these exit polls orchestrated,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said in a social media post hours after the exit polls were published on Saturday. “The INDIA Janbandhan will definitely get a minimum of 295 seats, which is a clear and decisive majority. The outgoing Prime Minister can remain smug for three days in the meanwhile.”

The counting of votes will take place on June 4. Ahead of the release of the exit polls, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge predicted that the Opposition INDIA bloc will win at least 295 seats. A party or a coalition needs 272 seats to form the government.

Ramesh said that the exit polls “are all psychological games he is masterminding” and that the “actual [election] results will be very different”.

Several exit polls on Saturday predicted a comfortable win for the National Democratic Alliance in the Lok Sabha elections, claiming at least 320 seats for the coalition. While the Opposition INDIA bloc could win between 107 to 182 parliamentary seats, other parties could secure anywhere between 15 to 55 seats, according to most pollsters.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that the exit polls published on Saturday were “Modi media poll”. “It is his fantasy poll,” Gandhi told reporters.

When asked how many seats he thinks the INDIA bloc will win, Gandhi said, “Have you heard [late Indian artist] Sidhu Moose Wala’s song 295? 295.”

The Trinamool Congress, which is part of the INDIA bloc, also rejected the exit polls and said that it believed in the people’s mandate. Several exit polls predicted that the BJP will get more seats than the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, where the Mamata Banerjee-led party is in power.

“Most of the exit polls had predicted a victory for the BJP in the 2021 Assembly elections,” The Indian Express quoted Trinamool Congress leader Santanu Sen as saying. “But we all know what the actual results were – TMC won a two-thirds majority. We believe in people’s polls, not opinion polls or exit polls. The TMC will win more than 30 Lok Sabha seats in the state.”

Somnath Bharti, the Aam Aadmi Party and INDIA bloc’s candidate from the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, also rejected the exit polls forecasts.

“I will shave off my head if Mr Modi becomes PM for the third time,” Bharti said in a social media post. “Mark my word! All exit polls will be proven wrong on 4th June and Modi ji will not become prime minister for the third time.”

Bharti claimed that the INDIA bloc will win all seven parliamentary seats in Delhi.

“Fear of Mr Modi does not allow exit polls to show him loose,” he claimed. “Hence we all need to wait for actual results scheduled to be delivered on June 4th. People have voted very heavily against [BJP].”

Congress leader DK Shivakumar said on Saturday that he had no faith in exit polls. The Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister predicted that the Congress will cross double digits in the state, PTI reported.

Some exit polls forecast that the Congress will win less than 10 seats out of the total 28 seats in Karnataka, where the party is in power.

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Sanjay Raut described exit polls as a “corporate game and fraud” and alleged that there was pressure on media companies that conduct them according to PTI. He predicted that the INDIA coalition would win between 295 and 310 seats.

Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said that the Congress would win at least 10 out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

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