The assembly elections conducted in eight phases in five states amid the raging coronavirus pandemic drew to a close on Thursday at 6.30 pm. Soon after, several exit polls have come up with their prediction for the state assemblies, two days before the final results are to be out on May 2. The majority of polls have predicted a clear edge for TMC in West Bengal, LDF in Kerala and DMK-Congress in Tamil Nadu. The BJP has managed to retain Assam and gained the union territory of Puducherry, according to exit polls.

ABP-C voter poll has predicted a close fight in Bengal with Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress fetching over 150, and the challenger BJP at 100. The Left-Congress alliance, as per the exit polls, takes the third spot with 10 seats.

West Bengal has witnessed an acerbic campaign with the both sides – the BJP and the ruling Trinamool – attacking each other way below the belt. PM Narendra Modi’s several public meetings and BJP’s massive push in Bengal seems to have paid off as the vote percentage margins between the two leading parties have reduced drastically, if exit polls were to go right. The Bengal Legislative Assembly has 294 seats while the majority mark is 148.

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In Kerala, Chief Minister Pinnarayi Vijayan has retained the state, show the exit polls. In this southern state, which has been choosing between the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF), no political party has ruled for two consecutive terms in the last four decades but Pinnarayi Vijayan-led LDF has a clear lead, according to the predictions. The runner-up UDF got 30 seats and the BJP landed in third spot with 1-5 seats. In 140-member Kerala assembly, the majority mark is 71

Assam has once again chosen the BJP government with exit polls predicting over 50 seats for the ruling party in the 126-member assembly, 14 more than the majority mark 64. The grand alliance of eight parties, including Congress and Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF bagged over 40 seats.

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Tamil Nadu in its first state elections after the death of two veterans of the state politics – J Jayalalithaa of AIADMK and M Karunanidhi of DMK – has sided with the DMK led by MK Stalin. DMK is predicted to win over 150 seats and AIADMK, which contested in alliance with the BJP, 58 seats. In 2016, AIADMK had retained the state under the leadership of Jayalalithaa, who soon after the win fell sick and died on December 5, 2016. Since then, AIADMK witnessed a lot of bickering and in-fighting and has lost ground-level support. In the 234-member assembly, the majority mark stands at 118.

Puducherry with bipolar contest between the Congress and N Rangaswamy’s All India NR Congress, which has forged an alliance with the BJP and AIADMK, has chosen NDA, according to the exit polls predictions. In the 30 member assembly, the majority mark is 16.