Exit Polls Indicate Clean Sweep for BJP in Maharashtra, Haryana

The first Assembly elections after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s landslide win in Lok Sabha elections this year have concluded. All major exit polls indicate a comfortable win for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in both Maharashtra and Haryana. The tally being projected in both the states is either at the same level or higher than the 2014 mandate.

BloombergQuint’s Kaushik Vaidya breaks down the exit poll predictions along with political commentator Amitabh Tiwari and Editorial Director of The Quint Sanjay Pugalia.

Pugalia said this was the most boring election ever as there was prior consensus on the outcome.

“These exit polls almost confirmed this directionally. In terms of numbers also there is a consensus and it shows an emphatic victory for the BJP-Sena alliance in Maharashtra. In Haryana also, BJP should do pretty well,” Pugalia said.

‘BJP Has Consolidated Position Across Regions’

Tiwari said if the numbers are correct, they show the BJP has consolidated its position across regions with its “social engineering.”

“So now it’s the number 1 party across regions. It has been able to decimate the Pawar stronghold of western Maharashtra. It has also been able to adopt an innovative social engineering strategy whereby initially it ignores the dominant caste like the Marathas and Jats in Harayana, consolidates all the other caste groups against that community and makes them fall in line.”

Amitabh Tiwari, Political Commentator

Tiwari said the BJP has been able to achieve a “social coalition of castes” which now account to 75-80 percent population in both the states.

“It’s almost an invincible combination which it has been able to achieve and it has been able to manage the contradictions within each of these social alliances and the vote blocks well,” Tiwari added.