Voting for 7-phase Lok Sabha elections concludes, all eyes on exit poll 2024 results today

Exit polls 2024: All eyes are set on the exit polls 2024, as voting for the marathon seven-phase polling process for the Lok Sabha elections, which began on April 19, came to an end Saturday, June 1.

India Today-Axis My India, ABP – C-voter, News24-Today’s Chanakya, Republic TV- PMARQ-Matrize, Times Now – Bulls Eye, NDTV India – Jan Ki Baat and TV9 Bharatavarsh – Polstart are some of the national news channels and agencies which will release their exit poll data and results after 6:30 pm today.

Phase 7 of Lok Sabha polls 2024 ends

The seventh and the final phase of polling for Lok Sabha elections across seven states and the Union territory of Chandigarh saw a voter turnout of 58.3 per cent till 5 pm, the Election Commission (ECI) said. Full coverage of Lok Sabha elections 2024

Follow Live Updates on Exit Polls 2024

As per the ECI, Jharkhand led the voter turnout charts at 60.14 per cent till 3 pm.

Other states and UTs where polling was held in the seventh phase were Bihar, Chandigarh, Odisha, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh.

The polling of the last phase started on Saturday at 7am in the 57 parliamentary constituencies spread across seven states and Chandigarh.

According to the ECI, over 10.06 crore electors, including approximately 5.24 crore male, 4.82 crore female and 3574 third gender electors are expected to exercise their franchise.

All 13 parliamentary constituencies of Punjab voted on Saturday in the last phase.

Polling for 6 Himachal Pradesh assembly seats

Six assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh also went to polls on June 1. The outcome will have a bearing on the Congress government in the state. All six seats going to the polls were held by Congress MLAs from these seats cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls.

Polling for the remaining 42 constituencies of the Odisha assembly is also conducted.

Earlier phases of Lok Sabha polls 2024

During the long campaign for seven-phased Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held over 200 campaign events, which included rallies and roadshows, in 75 days. He also gave several interviews.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi held more than 100 rallies and public interaction programmes, such as Nyay Sammelans and Nyay Manch, in the Lok Sabha polls. Polling for the earlier six phases of the election was held on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, and May 25.

Assembly polls have also been held in Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh. Odisha is also seeing simultaneous polls to Lok Sabha and assembly in the last four phases. (ANI)

Ban on exit polls 2024 till 6.30pm

The Election Commission of India has issued a ban on exit polls from 7am on April 19 to 6:30pm on June 1, till the conclusion of polling.

How are exit polls conducted?

The exit poll surveys are conducted after voters leave the polling stations. The data is collected by several agencies, including national and regional news channels, and later collated to get an idea of the mood of the nation.

Are exit polls unreliable?

At times, exit poll results go wrong because of the large number of resources they demand. Most of the time, these polsters have a very short timeline for gathering the inputs, increasing the chances of inaccuracy further.

In a 2023 column for the Deccan Herald, public policy expert Thiruvananthapuram S Ramakrishnan wrote that a quantitative survey alone makes it difficult to predict the undercurrent in an election.

Exit poll predictions should never be blindly relied on, as there is always room for mistakes. Instances where exit polls went awry in the recent past are not scarce either. However, in 2019 and 2014, the exit poll predictions did not miss the nation's mood.

In 2019, the exit polls, on average, predicted the NDA's tally at 306 and the UPA's at 120. The prediction was underwhelming when the actual results came, as the NDA won 352 seats with the BJP at 303. The then-UPA got 93 seats, with the Congress at 52.

INDIA bloc's U-turn on participating in exit poll debates

INDIA bloc parties on Saturday announced that they will participate in the exit poll debates on television this evening after the grouping's top leaders met and deliberated on the issue at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence.

The development came a day after the Congress said it has decided not to participate in any Lok Sabha exit poll debates on television channels. The party does not want to indulge in speculation and slugfest for TRP, it had said.

Congress's media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said INDIA bloc parties met and decided to expose the BJP and its ecosystem on the prefixed exit polls.