Facebook users join poll prediction game

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury
Bhubaneswar, April 28:

While the poll pundits and political parties are scratching their heads over the possible outcome of the elections in Odisha, social media is not far behind in the game, with a number of users chipping in with their own predictions and guesswork.

While some are giving party-wise predictions, some others have uploaded a list of possible winners in all the 147 Assembly constituencies.

“I think BJD will get 75 seats. Congress 35 and BJP 30 in the elections. It would be difficult to form government for BJD even if touches the magic number,” said Sankarsan Sahu on Facebook.

Similarly, RTI activist Jayant Das has shared a list prepared by a social media user Ramesh Rath, of the probable winners in all the 147 constituencies.

The social media users are also sharing their views on the national scene and coming up with predictions on who will form the next government at the Centre after May 16.

“I think BJP led NDA will get a full majority in this election. What do u think friends. Will BJP get these numbers ? I am hopeful and u??,” said Sunil Jain in a post.

Meanwhile, the three major political parties of Odisha Congress, BJD and BJP are still busy grappling with the numbers- based on feedback from the ground – that keep changing with every passing day.

While an overconfident BJP is increasing its seat projections every alternate day and talking of forming government in the state, the ruling BJD is being extra cautious and willing to concede it will not fare as well as in 2009.

On the other hand, the Congress, which hopes to make the best out of the BJD-BJP fight and win a number if seats by default, claims it will put up a better show than last time, although the results of several opinion polls indicated it will be pushed to third position in the 2014 elections.