"BJP, NDA getting anxious": RJD's Tejashwi Yadav dismisses Bihar's post-poll forecast

Patna (Bihar) [India], November 12 (ANI): A day after polling for second and last phase of Bihar assembly elections concluded, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday dismissed pollsters predicting a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) win in the state, calling into question the validity of exit polls
He said that their own party's research has shown that the Bharatiya Janata Party is "very nervous and getting anxious" due to a comfortable Mahagathbandhan win. He also alleged that the people of the state are also "restless" seeing how exit polls were released even before polling concluded.
"The kind of feedback we are getting shows that BJP and the NDA are nervous and anxious. People are restless; they are panicking because of the kind of voting that took place. Yesterday, people stood in long queues during voting -- even until 6 or 7 in the evening. People patiently waited to cast their votes. And while voting was still going on, exit polls started coming out," the RJD leader said during a press conference.
He claimed that the party has received "better feedback" than what was received in 1995, when Lalu Prasad Yadav fought under the symbol of the erstwhile Janata Dal.
"In the past, such positive feedback never used to come. You can say that the feedback we received this time is even better than what we got during the 1995 elections. Everyone has voted in large numbers against this government, and this time, change is definitely going to happen I had already said that the results will come on the 14th, and the oath ceremony will be held on the 18th," he said.
In the 1995 assembly elections, the erstwhile Janata Dal won 167 seats while the BJP won 41 seats, and Congress won 29 seats. Left parties, including CPI, CPI (ML) and CPI (M), won 26, 6, and 2 seats respectively.
Questioning the scientific validity of the exit polls, Yadav said that it is impossible for anyone to accurately predict the results as they do not have a big enough sample size to talk about the whole electorate.
"We neither live in false optimism nor in misunderstanding. These surveys are brought out merely to create a psychological impact -- to put pressure on the officials involved in the election process. If you ask any of those showing these surveys about the sample size, none of them can tell you. Neither the sample size nor the criteria of the survey have been made public," he said.
Following the conclusion of the second and last phase of the Bihar assembly elections, multiple exit polls predicted a comfortable win for the NDA for a second term in a row.
The People's Pulse poll survey allocated 133-159 seats to the NDA, 75-101 seats to the Mahagathbandhan, and 0-5 seats to Jan Suraaj. Others, it said, are likely to get 2-8 seats.
People's Insight's survey predicted 133-148 seats for the NDA, 87-102 seats for the Mahagathbandhan, 0-2 seats for Jan Suraaj, and 3-6 seats for independent candidates.
According to the DVC Research polls survey, the NDA is projected to win 137-152 seats, the Mahagathbandhan 83-98 seats, Jan Suraaj 2-4 seats, and others 4-8 seats.
While the first phase concluded on November 6, the second phase happened on November 11. The counting of votes is set to happen on November 16. (ANI)