Date:07/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/07/stories/2006050715260100.htm

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Watch out for The Hindu -CNN-IBN exit poll

Will Tamil Nadu's famously decisive voters deliver their first uncertain verdict? Will the State witness its first coalition government? Or will it once again be a late swing, leading to a decisive victory or even electoral landslide for one of the two alliances?

Will arithmetic or chemistry prevail? Or some unexpected combination of the two processes?

These are some of the questions that everyone is asking today — as the campaign comes to an end in one of the most closely contested and keenly watched Assembly elections in recent memory.

The Hindu -CNN-IBN Poll took a snapshot of this race at the starting point and found it "too close to call," while giving an insight into what went into the making of this unusual balance of political forces. The Hindu -CNN-IBN Exit Poll will monitor this race at the finishing line, again with researchers based at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), one of the leading social science research institutions in the country. The CSDS researchers, led by Professor G. Koteshwar Prasad and Sanjay Kumar, will monitor the voters outside 312 polling stations spread across 78 Assembly constituencies all over Tamil Nadu. They will quiz nearly 13,500 voters on how and why they voted the way they did. The findings will be analysed by Professor Rajeeva Karandikar of Cranes Software International, one of the country's leading statisticians, and Professor Yogendra Yadav of CSDS, the well-known political analyst.

The findings of the Tamil Nadu exit poll, along with the combined post-poll and exit polls findings for West Bengal, will berevealed in "Battle for the States" on the CNN-IBN channel between 9.30 and 10.30 p.m. on Monday, May 8. Detailed findings of the exit poll, including analysis of who voted for whom, will be published in The Hindu on May 9 and May 10.