'People will tell their mann ki baat to Narendra Modi on 23 May': Congress' Raj Babbar rejects exit poll predictions

Agra: Congress leader Raj Babbar on Sunday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP government will remain at the Centre only till 6 am on 23 May and they will be thrown out of power by 6 pm. “Exit polls are being shown by the media. But what is in the people’s heart will be reflected in the results on 23 May. People will surely tell their ‘Mann Ki Baat’ to Modi. This time, it has been ensured that Prime Minister Modi and BJP government will be in power till 6 am on 23 May and after 6 pm they will not be in power,” Raj Babbar said while speaking to ANI. [caption id=“attachment_4400633” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Raj Babbar. AFP[/caption] The Congress leader, who is contesting from Agra, took a dig at Prime Minister Modi’s Kedarnath visit and the traditional Garwali outfit which he sported while offering prayers at the temple. “I wore several traditional outfits in my acting career and even went to sacred pilgrimage. I believe one should not comment on an individual’s religious sentiments but this was too much,” he said. Several opposition leaders, including Congress president Rahul Gandhi, have been targeting Modi for his visit to Kedarnath and Badrinath temples stating that his action was a clear violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and it influences voters through a public display of his personal religious activities. Prime Minister Modi on Saturday offered prayers at the Himalayan shrine of Kedarnath, a day after campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls came to a close. After spending over 15-hours meditating inside a holy cave of Kedarnath, he visited Badrinath, another temple in Uttarakhand’s revered ‘Char Dham’ on Sunday. The exit polls are giving a clear majority to BJP-led NDA at the Centre. ABP-Nielsen poll projected 267 for the NDA, 127 for the UPA and 148 for ‘Others’ while CNN News 18-IPSOS exit poll gave the BJP and its allies the highest number of 336 seats with the saffron party on its own getting 276 seats, four more than it had won in the 2014 elections. Voting was held on Sunday for 59 Lok Sabha seats — 13 each in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, nine in West Bengal, eight each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, all four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and the lone seat of Union Territory Chandigarh. As per the EC, a voter turnout of 62 percent was registered till 7 pm in the seventh phase. Counting of votes is scheduled on 23 May.