# India

Final poll result likely to be same as exit polls: Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that he hoped the final results of the Lok Sabha elections are in accordance with the projections of the Exit Polls.

SNS | New Delhi | May 20, 2019 5:41 pm

Final poll result likely to be same as exit polls: Arun Jaitley

A day after the Lok Sabha elections concluded, and the ensuing Exit Polls predicted a clean sweep for the BJP-led NDA, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, on Monday, said that he hoped the final results of the Lok Sabha elections are in accordance with the projections of the Exit Polls that were made public on Sunday evening following the conclusion of the final round of the 2019 general elections.

Most exit polls, conducted by different organizations, have given the BJP-led NDA a full majority with some of them projecting that the BJP-led NDA would get over 300 seats to comfortably cross the majority mark of 272 in the 17th Lok Sabha.

Jaitley, in his blog post titled The Message of Exit Polls, said, “Many of us may continue to squabble over correctness and accuracy of the Exit Polls. The hard reality is that when multiple Exit Polls convey the same message, the direction of the result broadly would be in consonance with the message.

“If the Exit Polls are read along with the 2014 election results, it would be clear that there is a huge maturing of Indian democracy taking place. The electorate keeps national interest paramount before exercising a choice on whom to vote for. When well-meaning people with similar ideas vote in the same direction, it leads to the making of a wave,” he said.

Reacting to Opposition’s repeated charge that the electronic voting machines (EVMs) could be rigged, Jaitley said that for conducting the exit polls there is no requirement of EVMs. He added that if the final results are in conformity with the exit poll projections then the opposition’s issue of the EVMs would also lose its justification.

(With PTI inputs)