Congress dubs exit polls part of Modi's psychological games

New Delhi: Rejecting all exit poll predictions, the Congress on Sunday dubbed them "bogus", a "deliberate attempt to justify rigging" of the elections and a "part of psychological games" being played by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lower the morale of the INDIA bloc workers. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi called the exit polls “Modi media polls".

Mr Gandhi told the media at the AICC headquarters in the national capital, "This is not called an exit poll, it is a Modi media poll. This is Modi Ji's poll... it is his fantasy poll."

On being asked how many seats the INDIA bloc will win, Mr Gandhi said, "Have you heard Sidhu Moose Wala's song 295? It will be 295 (seats)."

Rejecting all exit poll predictions, party general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "This is a deliberate attempt to justify rigging. This is a deliberate attempt to justify manipulation of EVMs and this is also a psychological ops to lower the morale of the Congress workers and the INDIA janbandhan workers. We are not going to be frightened, we are not going to be intimidated and you will see that the actual results on June 4 will be completely different from what these exit polls show."

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Mr Gandhi held a meeting on Sunday with the party's Lok Sabha candidates, legislative party leaders and state unit chiefs via video conferencing and urged them to be alert and put in place measures to check any attempts of rigging on poll counting day.

Mr Gandhi, party general secretaries Jairam Ramesh and K.C. Venugopal, along with other senior leaders, interacted with the party's Lok Sabha candidates and reviewed the preparations for the counting day on June 4.

During the meeting, several Congress leaders exuded confidence that the party will do much better than what is projected in the exit polls in states such as Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and asserted the INDIA bloc is going to form the next government.

The assertion was made during an online interaction Mr Ramesh had before the media with key state leaders, Pradesh Congress Committee presidents and legislature party leaders of various states.

During his Zoom call interaction with Mr Ramesh, Assam Congress chief Bhupen Borah said that the party will win at least seven seats in the state.

Karnataka deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar said the Congress will win at least two-third of the 28 seats on the back of the popularity of the guarantees the party fulfilled after coming to power in the state.

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole said the party will win 16 seats and the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance will get 38-40 seats out of the 48 in the state.

All the state leaders who spoke at the virtual interaction debunked the exit polls as part of a psychological game being played by the BJP to "reduce the morale of the Congress workers".

The unusual interaction before the media came a day after the exit polls on Saturday predicted that Mr Modi will retain power for a third straight term, with the BJP-led NDA expected to win a big majority in the Lok Sabha polls.