Rama Krishna Sangem
Opposition Congress is in an upbeat mood after India Today’s Axis My India exit poll gave it a full majority in Telangana assembly elections. India Today’s exit poll on Telangana came a day after all other exit polls came out on November 30, polling day night. India Today exit poll gave Congress 63-73 assembly seats out of the total 119. The average figure is 68 seats to the party.
Ruling BRS got just 33-44 seats, followed by BJP with 4-8 and others including AIMIM secured 5-8 seats MIM is projected to get around 6 seats, one less than the last time tally. India Today delayed its exit poll results by a day as the polling on November 30 went on till late in the night. There was also some confusion as a short video leaked on its X platform which was deleted promptly.
There was some speculation that India Today may have fudged its figures to suit one or the other party. Still many viewers believed Axis My India survey as authentic as its numbers came right in this year May’s Karnataka assembly elections. Even India Today news channel claimed its exit poll as most watched and much awaited for its 94 per cent accuracy.
Even percentage wise too, this exit poll gave Congress clear edge – with 42 while BRS is expected to get just 36 per cent vote share. This is a sharp fall from a 16 per cent gap – BRS leading – between these parties eight months ago. This survey said BRS will get more seats only in Hyderabad city and surroundings while Congress will fare better in all rural areas of Telangana.
However, BRS leadership dismissed this exit poll too. BRS working president KT Rama Rao remarked how can an exit poll with just a sample of 26,000 voters can predict the final results. Even CM KCR too made an appeal to his party leaders and cadre not to get disappointed by the exit poll results. Till now, 9 out of 12 exit polls gave clear lead to Congress, while only one – Atma Sakhi estimated BRS will cross 60 figure.
KCR’s Cabinet on Dec 4
CM KCR calling for a Cabinet meeting on December 4, the day after counting of votes became a hot topic among political circles. Many think this as a morale boosting move to see that BRS polling agents will stay put in the counting centres till the end. Otherwise, a demoralised agents may leave counting centres, which may benefit Congress and BJP, at least in some seats.
If BRS gets majority on December 3, this Cabinet meeting will be held. Otherwise, it may not. Unless a hung assembly comes, there may not be any uncertainty over KCR’s future, this way or that way. Sources in BRS say that CM KCR is still hopeful of getting not less than 80 seats, while KTR predicted 70 seats a day before. There’s no clarity in BJP too on the actual seats they may get.
Meanwhile, all the trappings of power are appearing around PCC president and potential CM candidate of Congress A Revanth Reddy from Thursday on. Police security has been enhanced and a steady stream of visitors began at his Jubilee Hills home. Normally, this security arrangements are taken care by the local police based on security risk to the leaders.
