The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has claimed that the party would form the next government in West Bengal by winning more than 200 seats, even as all exit polls except two suggested a win and hat-trick for the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government.

BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya, the West Bengal co-incharge, told IANS: “The BJP is going to win more than 200 seats regardless of whatever the figures of the exit polls suggest. During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections nobody said that the BJP may win 18 seats. However, the party stunned everyone. Let’s wait for the results on May 2… everything will become clear.”

Meanwhile, BJP national spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal told IANS: “Exit polls cannot be treated as exit polls. West Bengal is amid the air of change. The way Mamata Banerjee has created a confrontation with the central government kept the people deprived of the Central benefits, indulged in appeasement politics… she is going to lose elections badly. In West Bengal, BJP government is going to be formed with an absolute majority.”

Apart from the Axis My India-India Today and the Republic-CNX exit polls, which gave the BJP an edge in the battleground state, all other surveys, including the CVoter Exit Poll for Times Now/ABP News, forecast a third victory for the Trinamool, putting it ahead in the 294-member Assembly.

However, the survey of Axis My India-India Today, whose predictions in the 2019 Assembly elections had shown the immense BJP gains in the state, again gave the party its first-ever victory in the state polls. According to it, the BJP could end with 134-160 seats, the Trinamool with 130-156, and the Left with a mere 0-2. On the other hand, the P-MARQ survey gave the Trinamool 152-172 seats, the BJP 112-132, and the Left 10-20. The NewsX-Polstrat gave the Trinamool 152-162 and the BJP 111-125 seats.

The ETG Research poll gave Banerjee’s party 164-176, the BJP 105-115 and the Left 10-15 seats. CVoter gave Trinamool 152-164, the BJP 109-121 and the Left 14-25.

The Republic-CNX poll, however, showed a BJP victory, giving it 138-148 seats, with 128-132 for the Trinamool and 11-21 for the Left.