The Hindu : National : Exit polls differ on outcome

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 16, 2005

National

National

Exit polls differ on outcome

N ew Delhi FEB. 15. Exit polls by two television news channels on the second phase of polling in the Assembly elections in Bihar and Jharkhand today came out with different projections. While Zee News gave a clear majority to the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress-Jharkhand Mukti Morcha alliance in the two States, Star News forecast a hung House.

The Union Minister, Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party is likely to emerge either as a key player in government-formation in Bihar or provide stability to it. The RJD was shown by both channels as suffering substantial losses in terms of seats in Bihar but Zee gave the ruling RJD-Congress coalition a slender majority.

While Zee News gave the RJD-Congress combine 122 seats, the magic figure in the 243-member Assembly, Star News projected the alliance as securing 100 seats. According to Zee, the RJD is likely to get 76 seats and the Congress 46. The BJP and its allies are poised to bag 76 seats and others, including the LJP, 41. It did not specify how many seats the LJP would get.

The Star News exit poll showed the RJD as getting 91 seats and the Congress just 9. The BJP and allies were projected as getting 90 seats, the LJP 29 and the others 20.

Both the projections were for 239 seats as polling has been postponed in four constituencies.

In the second phase of polling today in 82 constituencies, Zee News pegged the RJD at 31 and the Congress at 13, giving 28 seats to the BJP and 10 to others. Star News said the RJD was likely to get 21 seats and the Congress 6. It gave the BJP 33 seats, the LJP 9 and the others 13.

In Jharkhand, where the Assembly has 81 members, Zee News predicted 38 seats to the JMM-Congress alliance, 4 to the RJD, 34 to the BJP and 5 to others. Star News, however, gave 39 seats to the JMM-Congress-RJD tie-up, 36 to the BJP and 6 to the others.

In today's polling in 29 constituencies, Zee gave the Congress 9 seats, 18 to the BJP and two to the others. — PTI

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