Officials will begin counting over 120 million votes on Saturday to elect a new assembly in Uttar Pradesh. The risk factor is high for almost 5,000 candidates across 403 seats in India’s most-populous state. Notably, UP saw a huge campaigning swinging from a growth narrative and caste reckoning to religious polarisation and a bitter war-of-words.
Lately, a clutch of exit polls predicted the BJP to get closest to the majority mark of 202. However, the state’s unmatched caste and religious diversity has over and over again misled pollsters in the past.
Just ahead of the counting, Samajwadi Party workers were seen performing havan in Lucknow. “SP-Congress alliance will win today and we will expose the people who were conspiring against CM,” said Samajwadi Party’s Rajendra Chaudhary.
On the other hand, BJP candidate from Lucknow Cantt Rita Bahuguna Joshi offers prayers at Hazratganj’s Hanuman Temple.
“The reasons why exit polls get it wrong is because it is most successful in homogenous communities. They are less accurate in planet Earth’s most diverse spot, India,” said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Sighvi citing Bihar election as an example of how exit polls can get the results wrong.
