Exit polls signal BJP gains across key Indian states

NEW DELHI, Apr 30: India Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party appeared set for gains in crucial state elections in India, according to exit polls released Thursday ahead of final results due on May 4.

Exit polls have a patchy record in India, but they often show early markers of the final outcome. 

Elections in five states and territories have taken place in April including in the major opposition-held states of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ruling party in the national parliament, is hoping to make inroads in the opposition strongholds.

Results in all the elections -- which were also held in Assam, the smaller coastal territory of Puducherry and the Communist-run Kerala -- will be released on Monday.

All eyes will be on West Bengal, where the BJP waged an aggressive bid to dislodge Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the firebrand leader of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), in power in the state since 2011.

Exit polls predict the BJP has a slight edge over TMC, and a win this time would mean the BJP gets to rule the state of over 100 million people for the first time.

Banerjee's party won 213 of the 294 seats in the previous election held in 2021.

Past elections have resulted in violence in the state.

The campaign this time was marked by protests over the removal of millions of names from voter rolls during a Special Intensive Revision -- meant to remove ineligible voters but which critics say is skewed against marginalised and minority communities.

Political activist Yogendra Yadav said there was "no way" the TMC would lose in a "fair election".
"The only way the BJP can win is by rigging, ie, electoral malpractice of one form or the other, from voter list manipulation to counting fraud," he said in a post on X on Wednesday.    �"AFP