If exit polls match final results, Oppn’s fake issue of EVMs would lose non-existent rationale: Arun Jaitley

The Opposition’s “fake” issue of electronic voting machines (EVMs) would lose its “non-existent rationale” if the results of the exit polls for the Lok Sabha elections are similar to those declared on May 23, Union Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday.

The Opposition’s “fake” issue of electronic voting machines (EVMs) would lose its “non-existent rationale” if the results of the exit polls for the Lok Sabha elections are similar to those declared on May 23, Union Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday.

In yet another Facebook post, Jaitley wrote, “Exit Polls are based on personal interviews. The EVMs have no role. If the results of the Exit Polls and final results on the 23rd May, 2019 are in the same direction, the Opposition’s fake issue of the EVMs would also lose its non-existent rationale.”

Most exit polls have forecast another term for Prime Minister Modi, with some of them projecting that BJP-led NDA will get more than 300 seats to comfortably cross the majority mark of 272 in the Lok Sabha. On Sunday, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee had called the exit poll results a “gameplan” to “manipulate or replace EVMs”.

In his post, Jaitley also claimed that there is “a huge maturing of Indian democracy” taking place if one reads the exit polls along with the 2014 Lok Sabha election result. “The electorate keeps national interest paramount before exercising a choice on whom to vote for. When well-meaning people with similar ideas vote in the same direction, it leads to the making of a wave,” he said.

To support this statement, the minister added, “Dynastic parties, caste parties and the Obstructionists Left received a setback in 2014. This will be reiterated, loud and clear, in 2019.”

Expressing hope that the results would be in consonance with the outcome of multiple exit polls, the minister said, “Many of us may continue to squabble over correctness and accuracy of the Exit Polls. The hard reality is that when multiple Exit Polls convey the same message, the direction of the result broadly would be in consonance with the message.”

Jaitley also said the personalised campaign against Prime Minister Modi did not cut much ice in 2014 and may not cut any ice in 2019. “Leaders are judged on merit and not on caste or family names. Thus, the Prime Minister’s style of rising above caste and concentrating on performance related issues received far more acceptability with the electorate,” he said.

Taking on the Gandhi family, Jaitley said it has become a liability for the grand old party. “I re-assert my earlier hypothesis that in the Congress the first family is no longer an asset but an albatross around neck of the Party. Without the family, they don’t get the crowd, with it they don’t get the votes,” he said.

Stating that voters are no longer willing to trust ‘Coalition of Rivals’ as their alliances are untenable, he said, “The arithmetic of caste coalitions loses to the chemistry on the ground created for the front runner in the elections. This chemistry is in form of catching the imagination of the people on issues of national interest.”

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