Bhubaneswar, June 3: The leaders as well as workers of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are upbeat after almost all the Exit Polls surveys projected massive gains for the party in Lok Sabha elections in Odisha.

The surveys suggest that the BJP has finally managed to breach the impenetrable fortress of Biju Janata Dal (BJD), at least in the Lok Sabha elections.

The survey conducted by Jan Ki Baat projected that BJP would win 15 to 18 seats out of the total 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Similarly, agencies like CHANAKYA, ABP-C Voter, India Today-Axis and the NDTV claimed that BJP may register a win in 15 to 20 parliamentary constituencies of the state.

Almost all the agencies projected that the ruling BJD would have to be satisfied with the second place in the seats tally for the Lok Sabha in 2024.

In the 2024 general elections, BJP leadership turned their focus towards states like West Bengal and Odisha where the party has been traditionally weak but which are critical to its ambitious ‘400 Par’ mission.

After the alliance talks failed to materialise, the BJP immediately resorted to an aggressive campaign mode in Odisha. The BJP campaign which was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the front focussed around issues of Odia Asmita (Odia Self-identity), non-Odia successor to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, in a reference to the Tamil Nadu-born BJD leader V.K. Pandian, mismanagement in Shree Jagannath Temple, migration of labourer, corruption, and law & order issues etc.

Another major factor that seems to have swayed voters in favour of the BJP is the strong PM Modi wave across Odisha, both in the urban and rural pockets, following the construction of the grand Ram Temple at Ayodhya.

The spontaneous celebrations for the Ram Temple construction in every nook and corner of the state even took the local BJP leaders by surprise.

Meanwhile, experts remain sceptical over the credibility of Exit Polls projections.

In 2019, India Today in its Exit Polls had predicted that BJP would win 15 to 19 seats out of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Similarly, Times Now claimed that the BJP would grab 12 seats in the 2019 elections. The Exit Polls projections by other agencies were almost the same.

Contrary to the Exit Polls projections, the BJP managed to win only eight seats while 12 fell into ruling BJD’s kitty during the previous general elections.

Though the wave in support of BJP is much stronger this time, yet everyone's eyes are on the counting of votes on June 4 to know whether BJP succeeded in checking the juggernaut of BJD in Odisha. (IANS)

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