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Congress trashes exit polls, BJP says Cong "demoralised"

December 05, 2013 18:15 IST

The exit polls that predicted a strong showing for BJP in four states in Wednesday's crucial Assembly polls were on Friday rubbished by Congress as one which has "no meaning" while the saffron party said it appears to be "completely demoralised".

Various exit polls on TV channels have predicted that the BJP is poised to win three states -- Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh -- and will lead in Delhi.

AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh refused to accept either the merit of the exit polls or the contention that the results of the assembly polls prove BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's rise in the next Lok Sabha polls.

"There is no meaning in such exit poll results and they deserve to be consigned to dustbin," he told reporters.

Digvijay's son Jaiwardhan said exit polls are unreliable and are error-prone.

BJP said Congress is demoralised at the prospect of losing the Assembly polls and may fail to respond to this crisis as it continues to be dependent on one dynasty for its survival.

In his Facebook post, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said that though the exit polls have their limitations and a margin of error cannot be ruled out, the outcome indicates a trend.

"Congress appears to be completely demoralised...If this is the demoralisation that the exit polls give to the Congress, I wonder what would happen when the actual results come in," Jaitley said. Counting of votes will be taken up on Sunday. 

"Unless the Congress responds to this reality, it will never find the correct answers. The relevance of charisma of a dynasty is never a long term answer in politics. When the political parties become a crowd around a family, the strength of the party becomes synonymous with the capacity of that family," Jaitley said.

Noting that Congress has become a dynastic party, he said if the dynasty cannot deliver, the party fails.

"Observing this party closely, I have no doubt that they will not ask the right questions. Unless they ask the right questions, they will not get the right answers. I will not be surprised, considering the traditional thinking of the Congress, if their solution to the problem is 'if one member of the family fails, let us try another'," Jaitley said.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said she neither believes in exit polls nor agrees with projections made about her losing power.

"I don't believe in exit polls and I don't believe in your projections (made by TV channels," she said, adding, "I am relaxed".

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