At one end, a white shamiana with orange and green stripes is set up with separate booths for media houses. Atop a flight of stairs on the other side is perched a projector with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s live speech playing to an absent audience. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s route for Tuesday’s procession is laid out with potential arrangements for flower showers and ample space to host the crowds. On Monday, the BJP office on Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg looked all set for a Lok Sabha poll win. However, one thing stood out: There seemed to be no consensus on the NDA winning 400 seats as was promised during innumerable rallies. Numbers, though, seem to matter little to the party. Responding to a question on the “400 paar” chant, Sanjay Mayukh, a BJP MLC from Bihar, said, “Number janta degi (The people will give the numbers)”. Echoing Mayukh, BJP media panelist Shaina NC said numbers are “immaterial”. Shaina, who has been at the office for three months so far, believed “history was being created” and that “MIT and Harvard will have case studies” on how the “BJP won a third-term with a thumping majority”. However, a BJP worker, who has been with the party for 7-8 years, does put a number on it — 300-350 for the BJP alone. He says that the Opposition’s narrative of the BJP’s plans to “change the Constitution” holds no weight. “Ek din mein koi Samvidhan ko kaise badal sakta hai (How can we change the Constitution in one day?” National spokesperson Tom Vadakkan, who was earlier with the Congress, said the “exit polls” are a “messenger” and “an indicator” of things to happen. In Kerala, his home state and where the BJP hopes to make a breakthrough as part of its push in the South, he sees “green shoots”. He lists five seats where BJP’s prospects are bright — Thiruvananthapuram, Alathur, Alappuzha, Thrissur and Pathanamthitta. Enter the Congress office on Akbar Road and the mood was relatively upbeat regardless of the prediction of the exit polls. On the office lawns, some raised slogans of “Rahul Gandhi PM and Rahul Gandhi Zindabad”. Here, too, a tent was put up. Others fixed the lights near the room where press conferences are held. Lakshman A, a “fifth-generation” worker from Ahmednagar in Maharashtra, spoke of his travels with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. “Tomorrow, the INDIA bloc will come to power. My home state is an example. There, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party under Sharad Pawar are very strong.” This confidence is visible in the higher ranks too, with the narrative being that the exit poll predictions are inaccurate. They reason that the people chosen to be interviewed for the exit polls might not “disclose the actual preference of the voter”. For Devender Yadav, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee President and the party’s Punjab in-charge, this was a “janta ka chunav (people’s election)”. He dismisses the chances of BJP winning any seats in Punjab, even as “it may increase its vote-share”. Pranav Jha, who is the AICC secretary in-charge of communications of the party president’s office, says the exit polls are a reflection of a “suspicious political atmosphere”. Across the road from the BJP office is the Aam Aadmi Party’s office. After addressing a press conference, where he questioned the veracity of the exit polls, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh seemed confident of the INDIA bloc’s win. “INDIA will get 295 seats. BJP-led NDA will get 235.” Delhi AAP MLA Somnath Bharti, who said he would “shave his head” if Modi comes to power for a third term, termed the exit polls “Modi’s poll”. Another party worker said the AAP-Congress combine will bag all 7 seats in Delhi — the BJP had swept the capital the last two times — attributing it to people “knowing the reason behind (CM Arvind) Kejriwal’s arrest”. “BJP was nowhere in the picture in Delhi. The public fought the elections for basic necessities like women’s safety, employment and water crisis. They believe in our policies and execution. We will get the mandate,” he said.
