Khattar thanks voters after exit polls' predictions

Reacting to the exit polls predicting that the BJP is set to retain power with a bigger mandate in the state, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar thanked the voters on Monday evening and said the workers of the saffron party had worked very hard.

The exit polls have forecast a facile victory for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state and a rout for its rivals, led by the Congress.

On the exit polls giving a clear edge to the party in Haryana, Khattar said he wanted to thank every voter for this as also the party workers, who had worked very hard during the entire poll campaign.

Reacting to the predictions, former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said, "I do not believe in exit polls, I believe in the exact poll results."

"According to the feedback I have got and on the basis of my tours across the state ahead of polling, I can say that on October 24, when the results are declared, the Congress will get a majority and form the government," he told reporters in his home constituency in Rohtak.

Asked to comment on Hooda predicting a Congress win, Khattar told reporters here that "by noon on October 24, there will be a fair indication of what the poll results will be. If, for two days, they want to live under this illusion, I have no objection".

In the 90-member Haryana Assembly, the BJP currently has 48 members. The saffron party had, for the first time, formed government in Haryana on its own strength in 2014.