Most exit polls predict over 350 seats for BJP-led NDA

A historic 3rd term for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that's what exit polls were predicting as the 7th and the last phase of Lok Sabha election concluded on Saturday evening.

None, though, have yet carried the NDA across its dream score of 400 of 543 Lok Sabha seats, NDTV reported.

The BJP, too, has been placed far short of its 370-seat target. The INDIA bloc, five exit polls predicted, will fall massively short of the 285 seats predicted by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge in the evening.

An aggregate of six exit polls indicates that the NDA will get 367 seats, the INDIA bloc will get 143 seats. The BJP's individual score will be 327 seats, the Congress, 52.

The maximum number of seats predicted for the NDA was 362-392, in the exit poll by Jan kiBaat. It predicts the Opposition bloc will get 141-161 seats.

It is followed by India News-D Dynamics, which is predicting that the NDA will get 371 seats and INDIA 125 seats.

The lowest score for the NDA comes from DainikBhaskar -- 281-350, and a corresponding higher score for the INDIA bloc, 145-201 seats.

Exit polls do not always get it right.

All exit polls, though, are unanimous about NDA's improved performance in the south and in Bengal.

In Andhra Pradesh, the alliance with Chandrababu Naidu paid off, they predict, with the NDA expected to get 18 of the state's 25 seats.

Karnataka is also expected to vote overwhelmingly for the BJP, despite its preference for the Congress at the state level.

In Telangana too, the Congress may be unable to capitalise on the assembly poll victory and the decimation of K Chandrasekhar Rao's Bharat RashtraSamithi, exit polls indicate. The BJP is likely to walk away with over half of the state's 17 seats.

The BJP is even expected to open its account Tamil Nadu, with anything between one and seven seats, exit polls predict.

In West Bengal, the BJP is expected to push up its 2019 score of 18 seats to 22, outstripping the state powerhouseTrinamool Congress for the first time. Mamata Banerjee's party could get just 19 of the state's 42 LokSabha seats.

The party will also continue to dominate bastions like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and national capital Delhi.

Change, though, is expected in Bihar, which had given 39 of its 40 seats to the NDA in the last election.

bd-pratidin/GR