EXIT POLLS PREDICT PM MODI SWEEPING BACK TO POWER

If the exit poll predictions are confirmed by the actual results, it will signify strong voter endorsement of Narendra Modi and his policies over the past decade.

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Narendra Modi is expected to return to power, as was widely expected, for the third time as the Prime Minister of India, with all the pollsters and exit polls on Saturday predicting the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) winning more than 350 seats. The results of the elections will be declared on 4 June.

If the exit poll predictions are confirmed by the actual results, it will signify strong voter endorsement of Narendra Modi and his policies executed over the past decade.

This outcome would indicate that PM Modi was successfully able to navigate through huge challenges that were posed by two terms of anti-incumbency against many Members of Parliament, the Covid-19 pandemic, employment issues and inflation.

This will be a much bigger win in the political sense than 2014 and 2019, as this was the first election in the last 10 years when the entire Opposition, barring a few, came together to fight the elections against PM Modi jointly. The battles that PM Modi fought from 2019 to 2024 were much more challenging than what he had experienced earlier.

It is expected that the PM and his close advisors would also have access to similar poll surveys that are done by non-media companies and are often more accurate.

The 73-year-old Modi did 206 public engagements, including rallies, events and roadshows and 80 interviews with the media in fewer than 45 days since the elections began. This comes to five rallies every day, while crisscrossing the country.