Psephologists, often getting the wrong end of the stick for their off-the-mark exit poll surveys, had predicted a Bharatiya Janata Party victory, but none had given the saffron party the number it finally got.
The BJP won 117 seats in the 182-member state assembly, a tad higher than the NDTV exit poll projection of 90 and 110 seats for the party. The CNN-IBN-CSDS exit poll gave BJP 92 to 100 seats with Congress expected to notch somewhere between 77 and 85.
Others were given three to seven seats.
The exit poll by Star News-Nielsen had forecast BJP would get 103 seats, while that by Zee News and C-Voter had given the party 93 to 104 seats followed by Congress at 75 to 87 seats.
Pollsters became the object of ridicule in 2004 after they wrongly predicted a resounding victory for the then ruling alliance National Democratic Alliance, led by the BJP.
However, the Congress emerged as the single largest party in that year's general elections and cobbled together an alliance that formed a government with the backing of the Left parties.
In the results announced on Sunday, BJP-led by Narendra Modi bagged 117 seats to give the party a third straight term in power in India's most industrialised state.
The minimum requirement for forming a government is 92 seats. Congress managed 59 seats, just 8 higher than 51 it held in the previous assembly.
The CNN-IBN exit poll had given Congress an edge in Central Gujarat and a near cake-walk for BJP in North Gujarat -- two areas that were worst-hit by the communal riots in 2002.
