"Fake and manipulated..": Congress leader Biswaranjan Mohanty on exit poll predictions

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Congress leader Biswaranjan Mohanty has labelled exit poll predictions for the Lok Sabha elections as "fake and manipulated," asserting they do not reflect actual EVM results.
He accused the BJP of using "managed" exit poll results to demoralize Congress leaders, emphasizing that the real results, to be released tomorrow will reveal the true public sentiment.
"These are fake and manipulated exit polls. It is not a result of the EVM, but the DM. There is an anger among the public over poverty and inflation. Be it farmer, youth, everyone has hatred against the BJP and people have voted against them," Mohanty said while speaking to ANI.
"BJP is trying to show the "managed" exit poll results to demotivate the leaders of the Congress party. The public is not trusting the exit polls and the real results will be out tomorrow," he added.
Drawing a parallel to 2004, he reminded that Congress emerged victorious despite similar misleading exit polls, predicting a similar outcome in the forthcoming results.
"During Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government, in 2004, the same type of "manufactured" exit poll came and what happened then, was the Congress came to power," he said.
The exit polls on Sunday predicted a landslide victory for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the Lok Sabha polls.
The exit polls on Sunday predicted that Odisha is going to witness a neck-and-neck fight with the two-decade rule of Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal facing a stiff challenge from the BJP.
The exit polls have predicted a rise in vote share for BJP while the Congress is predicted to remain at a distant third with a voter share of around 4 per cent.
According to Axis My India exit poll, BJD and BJP are expected to win 62-80 seats in the 147-member legislative assembly in Odisha. The Congress is expected to win 5 to 8 seats.
The BJP is projected to win 18-20 seats in Odisha in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, while the ruling Biju Janata Dal may only win 0-2 seats, according to predictions by India Today-Axis My India exit poll. Besides, the Congress is likely to get 0-1 seat.
The exit polls further said that the BJP is expected to gather a 48 per cent vote share while the BJD is predicted to get a vote share of 42 per cent.
In the 2019 legislative assembly elections, Naveen Patnaik-led BJD posted a thumping victory winning 112 seats out of 147 in the state. Patnaik was sworn in as chief minister for a fifth consecutive time since 2000. The BJP won 23 and the Congress managed to win nine seats in 2019.