With hours to go for the counting of votes to begin for Lok Sabha elections, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday exhorted partymen to not be ‘scared’ as they were fighting for the ‘truth’.
“Next 24 hours are important. Be alert. Do not be scared, you are fighting for the truth. Do not be disheartened by fake exit polls,” the Congress president tweeted on Wednesday, days after the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections concluded and the exit polls predicted a comfortable win for the NDA.
Gandhi urged the party supporters to keep faith in themselves and the party. “Your hardwork will not go waste,” he added. This comes amid Opposition protests over alleged malpractices in EVM handling and storage.
The exit polls predicted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set to retain power with the NDA led by him likely to get seats in the range of 336 and 360 in the House of 542. Often known to go wrong, the pollsters also predicted that the combined Opposition will get seats in the range of 125- 160.
On Tuesday, a high-level Opposition delegation met the EC and submitted a memorandum demanding that in order to make the process more transparent, paper slips must be counted first and if there is a discrepancy with what is shown digitally on the machines, then all votes – instead of the 5% the EC has decided to at present – in the assembly segment of that parliamentary constituency should be cross-checked. This demand was rejected by the EC on Wednesday.
