Assembly Election Exit Poll: Photo Finish In MP, Chhattisgarh; Congress Ahead In Rajasthan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s popularity is in doubt as exit polls for elections that ended Friday in five states showed inconclusive projections before general elections next year. Here's the detailed breakup:

Madhya Pradesh

• Two of five polls show Congress in the lead, while one shows BJP retaining power.
• Two polls predict a neck and neck contest.

Rajasthan

• Congress looks set to make a comeback in the state.
• Four exit polls show the Congress crossing the majority mark, while one shows a close fight

Chhattisgarh

• Three of five polls are predicting a close battle.
• Two outlier polls - one each predicting a big victory for the BJP and the Congress.
• The Ajit Jogi–Mayawati combine seems to have been a non starter.

Telangana

• K Chandrashekar Rao's gambit of calling early elections seem to have paid off.
• The Congress-TDP alliance is seen falling well short in three of the four exit polls.

Mizoram

• The Mizo National Front is projected to defeat the Congress Party.

What The Exit Polls Say? Watch Here:

Two exit polls in the state of Mizoram show the Mizo National Front ahead of the ruling Congress party.

• C-Voter shows the MNF winning between 16 and 20 seats in the 40-member assembly, with trailing at 14-18 seats.
• The Axis My India exit poll projects a 16-22 seat tally for the MNF.

In the Axis poll, both the Congress and the Zoram People’s Movement are projected to get 8-12 seats.

Mizoram is the only state in the north-east with a Congress government. The other six in the region have governments that are directly or indirectly linked to the National Democratic Alliance.

Three of four exit polls are giving the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi a clear lead in the first standalone election held in India’s newest state. The fourth – the C-Voter exit poll is projecting the TRS and the Congress-TDP alliance getting nearly an equal number of seats in the 119-member state assembly.

The CNX exit poll projects the TRS winning 66 seats – a marginal improvement on its 2014 performance of 63, the Congress-TDP seen at 37, the BJP at 7.

The Jan Ki Baat exit poll has a projection with the TRS ahead in a 50-65 range, and the Congress-TDP likely to bag between 38 and 52 seats.

The Axis My India poll is showing the TRS return to power with an increased majority. This poll projects 79-91 seats for Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, with the Congress-TDP a distant second at 21-33.

The Bharatiya Janata party’s projected tally is in single digits in all four exit polls.

The C-Voter, Axis My India polls are showing a big win for the Congress in Rajsthan, while CNX and CSDS-Lokniti are projecting that the party will cross the half-way mark, but not by a big margin, in the 200-seat assembly.

The Jan Ki Baat exit poll shows the contest in dead-heat, estimating that the BJP could win between 83 and 103 seats, and the Congress getting between 81 and 101.

Here’s the breakdown for the two exit polls that show healthy wins for the Congress:

• C-Voter expects the Congress to cross a two-third majority, projecting that it will win 137 seats, sending BJP Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s tally down to 60.
• The Axis My India poll has given the Congress a range of 119-141 seats, with the BJP falling to 55-72.

Two exit polls that suggest that the Congress will win, but by a smaller margin:

• CSDS expects the Congress to win 101 seats, and the BJP 83.
• CNX projects the Congress winning 105 and the BJP 85.

Read BloombergQuint’s coverage of the key issues in the Rajasthan elections.