As D-Day nears, BJP exhibits confidence of victory

After a month-long hard campaigning, top BJP leaders went into a studied silence counting on reasons why the party should not be despondent on the outcome of the Bihar Assembly polls.

With the final fifth phase polling coming to an end on Thursday evening and majority of seven exit poll surveys aired by news channels giving edge to grand alliance, BJP leaders still exhibited confidence and insisted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma, youth voters’ belief in the NDA government’s development agenda and fear of return of jungle raj if the JD(U)-RJD combination returns to power will take them well past the finishing line.

The party’s poll managers  huddled together here and carried out post polling analysis of the elections. Later, party president Amit Shah drove down to 7 RCR in the evening to brief Prime Minister Narendra Modi of  their assessment of the election results which would be formally declared on Sunday.

Party sources said Amit Shah was confident of the party not only emerging the single largest entity but also pulling along with NDA allies beyond the majority mark.

Shah showed the same confidence at an event held to launch a party booklet at the 11 Ashoka Road party headquarters on Thursday. “I will speak to you on November 8,” he replied when reporters sought his reaction on the election outcome.

The party president retweeted Today’s Chanakya’s exit poll findings aired by News24 channel, giving 155 (error margin of 11) seats to the NDA, 83 (error margin of 9) to JD(U) and 5 (error margin of 3) to others. Chanakya had earned reputation for getting spot on election assessments after their 2014 Lok Sabha elections projection.

Other than Chanakya, India Today-Cicero also pitched the NDA ahead of grand alliance on government formation scenario.  It gave NDA 119 seats (error margin 8) and grand alliance 117 (error margin 7).

Party leaders argued that Modi’s popularity is still intact which was seen in the large crowds at his rallies. Mostly youths attended his rallies and continued to be responsive as they were during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and later in Assembly polls in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand.

The BJP’s hope is driven on the youth voters who number about 3.28 crore of the total 6 crore electorates and spread across 243 constituencies.

A party leader said though the media reported that mostly women were voting in favour of grand alliance, their evaluation was whether their vote was coming to the NDA fold.