A voter gets her finger marked with indelible ink at a polling station during the seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha elections (Source: PTI)

Exit Polls 2019 Live: Final Phase Of Voting For Lok Sabha Elections To Conclude Shortly

May 19 2019, 11:42 AMMay 19 2019, 11:59 AMMay 19 2019, 11:42 AMMay 19 2019, 11:59 AM

Who'll Take The Throne?

As the two-month-long polling exercise in India draws to a close, the countdown to who will make it to Raisina Hill has begun: the first of which is the highly anticipated exit polls.

At least six election research organisations will release their estimates for the Lok Sabha election outcome any time after 6:30 PM. Exit polls, while having a patchy track record in predicting election winners, are still very closely watched by stock market participants.

“This week there is an event that is able to produce long-term trends in the market and is the factor that sets the tone for wealth creation,” Mustafa Nadeem, chief executive officer, Epic Research, told the newswire PTI. “Political events like election results usually produce trends that last for years.”

The election was largely seen as a battle between opposition parties banding together to contest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party. And that's how the campaigning was conducted, too.

BJP’s rallies were focused on issues of nationalism using the recent Balakot air strikes as a show of strength against neighbour Pakistan. The opposition, on the other hand, highlighted the Modi government's shortcomings.

BJP remains confident of securing a majority this time, too. Party chief Amit Shah said they are on course to secure over 300 seats. But a resurgent Congress is posing a threat. Rahul Gandhi, who has since 2014 revived a fading party, has said that BJP will be wiped out of the Lok Sabha. Other opposition party strongmen like Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati and MK Stalin have also said that the objective should be to ensure BJP doesn’t return to power.

But who will get the people’s mandate? That's a question which will only be answered on May 23.

Also read: Indian Voters Are Just About Worn Out

11:59 AM

Voter Turnout At 5

The overall voter turnout in the last phase of polling stood at 59.86 percent at 5 PM.

Follow live updates on the seventh phase of polling here.

11:26 AM

The Election Commission Split

On Saturday, reports emerged election commissioner Ashok Lavasa has decided to recuse himself from meetings related to model code violations till he is not allowed to record his dissent.

In a strongly-worded letter to Arora on May 4, Lavasa is learnt to have said he is being forced to stay away from the meetings of the full commission since minority decisions are not being recorded. He is also learnt to have said his participation in the meeting is "meaningless" as his dissent remained unrecorded. Lavasa said his notes on the need for transparency have not been responded to, so he has decided to stay away from model code-related complaints.

Lavasa had dissented in some of the 11 decisions the poll panel took on complaints against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah for alleged model code violations.

Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora described the reports "unsavory" and "avoidable". He also said that in the last meeting of the commission on May 14, it was "unanimously" decided to form groups to deliberate issues which arose in the course of conduct of Lok Sabha elections.

11:24 AM

Opposition Leaders Meet Before Results

A day before the last phase of polling, leaders of opposition parties stepped up efforts to cobble together a coalition, with Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu meeting Congress and Communist Party of India leaders.

Naidu met Congress President Rahul Gandhi and discussed with him the possibility of all opposition parties uniting and forging a joint opposition alliance. The Andhra Pradesh chief minister also met CPI leader G Sudhakar Reddy and D Raja over breakfast, asking them to "come together". Naidu also met Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav.

The TDP chief has already held several rounds of discussions with various opposition leaders, including Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, Aam Aadmi Party National Convener Arvind Kejriwal and Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury.

11:24 AM

Modi's Rare Appearance

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held what was supposed to be a press conference on Friday, his first in India after five years in power. However, journalists who showed up to ask questions to the leader of the world’s largest democracy found he wasn’t exactly answering them.

Instead, after giving some brief remarks, Modi sat silently as the powerful president of his Bharatiya Janata Party, Amit Shah, fielded questions from reporters -- even when they asked the questions directly to Modi.

Modi has been criticised by the opposition and critics for not holding a single real press conference in five years. He has preferred to speak to the nation via a state-broadcast radio show, interviews to select TV channels and newspapers and, in one case, an hour-long conversation with Bollywood star Akshay Kumar.

11:19 AM

Rahul Gandhi's New Economic Model Promise

Congress President Rahul Gandhi said that there is no option other than to offer India a new economic model that reboots the economy from the current framework that was set out in 1991.

“You do need a new paradigm,” Gandhi told BloombergQuint’s Raghav Bahl and Sanjay Pugalia in an interview on the sidelines of a campaign rally in Solan, Himachal Pradesh. “We are faced with a tremendous challenge, as big as any we have ever faced, of a massive population, youth, and an inability to create jobs.”

Gandhi proposed making a two or three “global strategic bets” that should be “transformational”, along with working on deregulation.

A really big powerful bet is in completely rethinking about what healthcare is in India, and understanding that India has the capability to shape global healthcare.

Rahul Gandhi, President, Congress Party

Watch the full interview here