KTR confident of winning over 70 seats, condemns release of exit polls before voting ends

HYDERABAD: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao while rubbishing the so-called exit polls forecasted a not-so-satisfactory performance of the BRS, found fault with the Election Commission of India (ECI) for allowing the release of the exit poll results even as the polling was going on in the State.

Addressing media at the BRS headquarters on Thursday, he said that he was confident of victory but was perturbed by the way the authorities allowed exit polls to bombard the voters while they were still standing in the lines.

“ I called the Chief Electoral Officer of Telangana over the phone and asked him how could they allow results to be telecasted while people are standing in line. Everyone knows that the Congress was trying to influence the voters,” he pointed out.

Recalling the 2018 elections and the five exit polls that went on air on the day of polling, KTR said that only one out of the five proved correct. “We have seen these kinds of exit polls. I promise on December 3 we are coming back with 70 plus seats. Initially, I thought of 88 seats apparently there were some problems here and there,” KTR said.

Explaining the small sample size of the exit polls, KTR said that the exit polls generally elicit information from a small sample which need not reflect the real results. “ If they are wrong the reputation of the agencies will be at stake. What illogical and stupid exit poll is this, that parallelly announces results while the poll is still going on,” KTR observed.

The BRS working president added that one must suspect that these agencies that air exit polls even as the election process was still going were hand in glove with Congress. “I find fault with the ECI. Those agencies that are jumping guns, will apologise on 3rd December when their predictions go wrong. Do they have the audacity to say they are sorry,” he said.

Thanking the party cadre and leaders who worked hard for the victory of the party for three months at a stretch, KTR assured them the victory was a bygone conclusion. Answering a question on the absence of urban voters from the polling scene the phenomenon was not new to cities like Bengaluru and even Kolkata.

He said that the party had no plans to demand repoll at any polling booth at this stage. However, the party candidates were attacked before the elections, such as the stabbing case of party candidate in Dubbak.