Foreign media on exit polls predicting second term for BJP

As the polling booths closed on Sunday marking an end to the seven-phased general elections, exit polls predicted Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA is coming back to power with a landslide victory.

While the Times Now-VMR exit poll said the BJP-led NDA will win 306 of the 542 seats and the UPA will settle at 132, Republic C-Voter said the NDA will win 287 seats and UPA 128. Others, which include regional parties, will get 120 seats according to Times Now-VMR and 87 according to Republic C-Voter survey.

Global media, which closely followed the mega electoral battle, was abuzz with the pollsters' prediction of PM Narendra Modi getting a second term.  

The New York Times, in a piece, stated that "the first batch of exit polls predicted that Narendra Modi, the prime minister, would return to power," adding that "many Indians credit him with programs that have helped the poor and cut through red tape and corruption". 

"The BJP would maintain its strong grip on Uttar Pradesh, the most valuable state with 80 seats on offer, an average of seven polls showed," The Guardian stated in its report.

"The BJP has been trying to make inroads in the eastern state to counteract expected losses in Uttar Pradesh and other parts of north India’s 'Hindi heartland' that the party swept in 2014," the report added.

UK-based BBC reported said, "A number of exit polls are suggesting that Narendra Modi... is on course to win the general election. The BJP dominated the campaign but analysts warn that exit polls have often been wrong in the past," the BBC stated. 

News agency Reuters reported citing analysts, "a clear win would mean Modi can carry out reforms investors expect to make India an easier place for doing business".

The exit poll is an exercise where psephologists follow a systematic and scientific manner in putting out a possible number of seats that a political party or alliance could muster up at the end of voting.

Exit polls have been used for years to provide the pulse of India's political climate once voting is over. They try to give a sense of how voters may have exercised their franchise and which political party or alliance of parties stand the best chance of forming the next government.

The counting of votes will take place on May 23, final results of the mega electoral exercise will be announced the same day. 

Watch: Know ten big take-aways emerged from 'exit polls 2019'