Congress leader cites past prediction failures and claims fear and dissatisfaction may influence final results
Guwahati: Raising doubts over the reliability of exit polls, Leader of Opposition and Congress candidate from Nazira, Debabrata Saikia, on Friday said past projections have often failed to reflect actual election outcomes.
Saikia pointed to earlier elections where forecasts did not align with final results.“Exit polls are not always reliable. We have seen this clearly during the 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, where many predictions gave a full majority to the BJP, but the actual results were very different. Similar mismatches have happened in several other elections as well,” Saikia states.
The Congress leader continues, “This time in Assam, there is a noticeable silence among voters about their choices. Many people seem to want change, but they are hesitant to express it openly due to fear of possible retaliation. There have been instances where BJP leaders allegedly warned that government benefits could be affected if people did not support them. Such statements naturally create concern among citizens.”
Because of this, a significant section of voters may have chosen to remain silent. This ‘silent voter’ factor, along with issues related to governance, could influence the final outcome.
Furthermore, he asserts, “There is also growing dissatisfaction among people regarding the promises made in 2016. If you ask many citizens whether those promises were fulfilled, the response is often negative. This has strengthened the demand for change, which many now see as necessary.”
Moreover, he emphasised that anti-incumbency and governance concerns could play a decisive role, making the final results potentially very different from current projections.
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