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The BJP has a clear advantage in Jharkhand and the PDP is projected to lead in Jammu and Kashmir, exit polls said after the five phase assembly polls in both states ended yesterday. |
The AXIS-APM exit poll has projected that Bharatiya Janata Party-All Jharkhand Student Union alliance in Jharkhand is likely to get 43% votes that may translate into the alliance winning 37 to 43 seats. The state has an 81-member assembly.
It projected that Babulal Marandi’s Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik is likely to improve its vote share to 16% and may get 12-16 seats while the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, which headed the outgoing government, will emerge third and expected to get 10-14 seats, with a projected vote share of 19%.
The Congress, and ally Rashtriya Janata Dal is likely to get 7 to 11 seats with a projected vote share of 12%.
Today’s Chanakya in its exit poll has predicted a “landslide sweep” for the BJP-AJSU alliance as it projected the alliance to get 61 seats (plus/minus 8 seats) with a vote share of 36% (plus/minus 3%).
It has projected 12 seats (plus/minus 4 seats) to JMM with a likely vote share of 21% (plus/minus 3%).
It has given four seats to Congress (plus/minus two seats) with a projected vote share of 19% (plus/minus 3%).
JVM is likely to get two seats (plus/minus two seats) with a projected voter share of 12% (plus/minus 3%).
The exit poll by the AXIS-APM places the Peoples’ Democratic Party in a leading position in Jammu and Kashmir but short of a majority in the 87-member assembly.
“In Jammu and Kashmir, PDP is likely to fall short of halfway mark and is projected to win 36 - 41 seats,” it predicted.
BJP, the exit poll says, is likely to emerge as the second largest party with projected seats being in the range of 16-22 seats. The ruling National Conference is projected to only win 9-13 seats.
Earlier, braving the winter chill, an astounding over 1.3mn people, or 76% of the electorate, turned out to vote in the fifth and final round of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections. Officials termed the turnout “historic and unprecedented” and the highest in the last 25 years.
This brought down the curtains on the staggered five-phase elections that were largely peaceful, barring a major terror attack on December 5 in which 21 people, including eight soldiers, were killed.
State chief electoral officer Umang Narula said that balloting was “peaceful and incident-free”, and there was no firing from across the border to disrupt the polling process.
He said the fifth phase saw 76% turnout, the highest among all the rounds.
Narula said the overall turnout was 66%, while it was 56% in the 2008 elections. The tenure of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly is six years. Of the 20 constituencies in Jammu, Kathua and Rajouri districts, 11 saw turnouts of 80% or more.
Bani constituency in Kathua recorded the highest turnout of 83.2%, while Gandhinagar in Jammu saw the lowest of 60%.
In Jharkhand, more than 2.5mn people - more than 70% of the electorate – yesterday exercised their franchise in the fifth and last round of the assembly election in Jharkhand, officials said.
Sixteen constituencies voted Saturday in the final phase. Of the 16 seats, seven were reserved for Scheduled Tribes.
In New Delhi, the Election Commission said that the turnout for the fifth and final phase in Jharkhand was 71.25%, while the overall percentage was 66.03%.