Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party will not only return to power in Gujarat but also perform better in the recently-concluded elections than what has been projected by various exit polls, says a senior party leader.
Having been closely associated with the party's election campaign in the state, the leader said, "I would not fix any limit. I know what our expectation is, but I would not share it with the media."
He gave the example of the Punjab assembly elections in Feburary 2007 where the 'so called' prediction makers were found wanting when the Akali Dal-BJP combine won by a comfortable margin to form the government.
First the media said the former chief minister had an edge over our alliance by 5 per cent swing. Then they started saying it was neck and neck and when the final results were out they still had the arrogance to show their faces on television in programmes and find lame excuses to defend their conclusion, he said.
Attacking the media, the senior BJP leader accused the Ahmedabad edition of a leading national daily of running its own campaign against Modi. He also charged journalists with becoming participatory journalists.
If you want to do this and preach instead of writing simple reports, you should be writing on edit pages, he said.
Congress pooh-poohs exit polls:
Unfazed by exit polls giving Narendra Modi another term in Gujarat, the Congress too describes the election surveys as an exercise of hazard and peril, and expressed confidence about forming the next government in the state.
Reacting to exit polls, All India Congress Committee spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi cited the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh as examples demonstrating the non-reliability of the surveys.
"These examples can be duplicated and I don't believe in embarking on hazardous, frivolous exercises. I believe in what the party sources, the cadres and the workers have to say," Singhvi said.
"We are heading towards a big, significant, unequivocally clear majority in Gujarat," he added.
The Congress, which has gone into the elections with the feeling that this was their best ever chance to defeat the BJP in the state, is relying on the combination of anti-Modi factors to do the trick for them.
Additional Reportage: PTI