The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : We will not go by exit polls, say TDP leaders

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 28, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

We will not go by exit polls, say TDP leaders

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, APRIL 27. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Tuesday stopped short of rubbishing the results of a string of exit polls conducted by television channels by asserting that the party was clearly poised to win more than 200 seats.

"We are not saying they are wrong, but we are standing by our claim," the TDP spokesman, C. Ramachandraiah, and politburo member, S. Venugopalachary, told reporters here on Tuesday. "We depended upon `exact polls,'" they said.

Significantly, Mr. Chary declined to specify the number of Lok Sabha seats his party was likely to win in light of the near-unanimous findings of exit polls that the TDP would lose out to the Congress. "You can reach your own conclusions on the basis of 200 Assembly seats we are going to win," the TDP leader, who is contesting the Adilabad Lok Sabha seat, said.

Asked to spell out the methodology of the exit polls conducted by the TDP, they said the sample consisted of 1,000 voters from each of the 294 Assembly constituencies. "Our happy experience in the past with our surveys, vindicates these results," they said.

The TDP office, which wore a deserted look throughout the day, began buzzing with activity, only after the party president, N. Chandrababu Naidu, arrived in the evening to address a press conference. Mr. Naidu spent the day assessing poll-related feedback from the district. The Telugu Mahila chief, N. Rajakumari, sought to present a picture of optimism by declaring that Mr. Chandrababu Naidu would be sworn in Chief Minister for a third consecutive term on May 13.

She claimed that her assessment about the TDP's possible victory was based on the heavy turn-out of women during Mr. Naidu's election campaign.

Mr. Ramachandraiah ridiculed the Congress leaders for repeating the `over-enthusiasm' it displayed after the 1999 Assembly polls when it formed a `shadow Cabinet' and whitewashing their houses in anticipation of coming to power.

He asserted that the TDP would return to the helm and fulfil its aim of building a `Swarna Andhra Pradesh'.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh