West Bengal Exit Poll Full Results 2019: Pollsters predict double digit wins for BJP, setback for TMC; zero for Left Front

Who are the key candidates?

The key candidates in the fray include Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, BJP chief Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Pragya Thakur, Kanaiah Kumar, Sunny Deol, Digvijaya Singh, Shatrughan Sinha, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Shashi Tharoor among others. While the key seats include the Varanasi, Amethi, Waynad, Gandhinagar, Lucknow among others.

When will the exit polls be announced?

Following the end of polling, exit polls will be released by several media outlets on all 543 seats of the Parliament today after 6 pm.

West Bengal witnessed violence in all seven phases of polling

West Bengal has a total of 42 Lok Sabha constituencies, and the state voted across all the seven phases of national polls. Today was the last one in nine seats. All the earlier phases have witnessed heavy violence with TMC and BJP trading blame over the issue. Large scale violence was reported on 19 May (Sunday) as well from different parliamentary constituencies of the state with Trinamool and BJP blaming each other for the violence.

How accurate are exit polls?

Exit polls have not always been accurate as they are based on information shared by voters soon after they cast their votes on the assumption that they are telling the truth. However, they present some sort of picture on who’s placed where ahead of the counting of votes on 23 May. Pollsters will attempt to answer questions like which state voted for whom or who will come to power or whether Narendra Modi will return as the prime minister for the second consecutive term or how well did TMC fared in these elections in comparison to challenger BJP. However, all of these analyses are only predictions and estimate how the country’s electorate has voted.

Who will rule West Bengal in 2019: Predictions to start coming in soon

With voting in West Bengal nearing its end, the question in everyone’s mind is who will win how many seats in the eastern state which saw high voter turnout, as well as, heavy violence throughout the seven phases of voting.

The first such prediction of who is likely to bag how many seats, will emerge once pollsters begin airing exit poll numbers after getting a go-ahead from the Election Commission. According to Section 126A of the Representation of the People’s Act, 1951, exit polls can only be aired until half an hour after the completion of the final phase of voting.