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Journalism of Courage
Dubbing exit polls as “gossip”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday raised doubts over such surveys and called it a “gameplan” to “manipulate or replace electronic voting machines (EVMs)”.
Taking to Twitter, the Trinamool Congress chief urged the Opposition to remain united to fight the poll battle together. “I don’t trust Exit Poll gossip. The game plan is to manipulate or replace thousands of EVMs through this gossip. I appeal to all Opposition parties to be united, strong and bold. We will fight this battle together,” she posted on the micro-blogging site.
Banerjee’s remarks came after exit polls predicted major gains for the BJP in West Bengal, where the party had won two seats in 2014. A few surveys suggested that the ruling TMC would win 24 seats while the BJP would bag 16 seats. While the Congress is expected to win two seats, exit polls drew a blank for the Left.
West Bengal Exit Poll Results 2019:
News18’s IPSOS – TMC 25-28 | BJP 3-7 | Others- 5-7
India News-Polstrat- TMC 26 | Congress 2 | BJP 14
Republic-Jan Ki Baat- TMC 28 | Congress 2 | BJP 18-26
Republic- CVoter- TMC 29 | Congress 2 | BJP 11
Senior TMC leader Derek O Brien also questioned the functioning of the EVMs. He said, “Have ‘Delhi media’ who masquerade as ‘national media’ lost their credentials and credibility? So-called Exit Polls will only confuse. We await the verdict of the people. Modi ji had called the number 300 even before Phase 7. Are these numbers to match that? EVM manipulation?”
