Exit polls have no value, manufactured at home two months back: Mamata Banerjee
Kolkata, Jun 1: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday said the exit poll predictions were not consistent with the ground reality as they were "manufactured at home" two months back.
She claimed that such exit polls have no value, and criticised the press for showing them.
"We had seen how the exit polls were conducted in 2016, 2019 and 2021. None of the predictions had turned out to be true," she told TV9-Bangla.
"These exit polls were manufactured at home by some people two months back for the media consumption. They have no value," she added.
Banerjee said the response of the people at her rallies didn't corroborate the exit polls predictions.
"The way BJP tried polarisation and spread false information that Muslims were taking away quotas of SC, ST and OBCs, I don't think Muslims will vote for BJP. And, I think the CPI(M) and Congress helped the BJP in West Bengal," she said.
Most of the exit polls have predicted that the BJP will get more seats than the TMC in the state.
On the prospects of the INDIA bloc, she said, "Akhilesh (Yadav), Tejashwi (Yadav), Stalin (M K Stalin) and Uddhav (Thackeray) will do well. Regional parties will do well everywhere."
She was also asked if her ties with the CPI(M) and Congress in West Bengal would affect her chances of joining the government at the Centre if the INDIA bloc was voted to power.
Banerjee said, "I don't think there will be any hurdle at the all-India level unless the CPI(M) interferes."
"See every regional party has its own respect, and after talking to everyone, if we are invited we will go. We will take other regional parties along. But let the poll results be out first," she said.
Meanwhile, state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar claimed his party will win at least 25 seats in West Bengal, but he would not be satisfied with less than 30 seats.
"When I took over as the state president two and a half years back, I had said we would cross the 25-mark in the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal, but even many in my party did not believe me. Now, not only my party, but the press and the people of the state believe that we will get more than 25 seats," he said.
CPIM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said exit poll predictions could not be relied upon.
"Swelling public resentment against the TMC will prevent it from doing well in the Lok Sabha polls wherever free and fair elections could be held," he claimed.
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19-yr-old woman found hanging from tree in UP village; juvenile held
Lucknow/Pratapgarh (UP) (PTI): Police have apprehended a 16-year-old boy for his alleged involvement in the rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman whose body was found hanging from a tree in a village here, officials said on Monday.
Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Brijnandan Rai, said that the body of a 19-year-old woman was found hanging from a tree in an orchard in the Manikpur police station area on Sunday morning. A post-mortem examination subsequently confirmed that she had been raped.
Police registered a case against unidentified persons under sections 103(1) (punishment for murder) and 70(1) (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and initiated an investigation.
During the course of the investigation, the police found that the deceased was in contact with a juvenile who was also her relative.
Acting on this information, during a joint checking operation, sub-inspector Amit Kumar Singh of Manikpur police station and SOG In-charge Amit Kumar Chaurasia, along with their team, apprehended the 16-year-old near the Lehdari Ganga River bridge.
The search for other accused persons is ongoing, police said.
According to the police, the woman had gone to sleep after dinner on Saturday night but was found hanging in an orchard nearly 400 metres away from her home the following morning.
Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Brijnandan Rai, had earlier said that the circumstances suggest foul play.
"The victim's slippers and undergarments were recovered 50 metres away from the spot where the body was found. There are visible injury marks on her body," Rai said.
While locals have alleged that the woman was murdered after being raped, the ASP said that it is "prima facie a case of murder."
"Based on the complaint filed by the victim's brother, a case of murder has been registered against unidentified persons," the officer added.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a post on X in Hindi on Monday, said, "The news of the heinous murder of a Dalit daughter in Pratapgarh is deeply tragic and condemnable."
"The question remains: why does the spate of murders of 'PDA daughters' continue unabated in Uttar Pradesh? Are the BJP government's claims regarding women's safety merely hollow rhetoric, or is there, in fact, discrimination even in the provision of security for women?" he said.
"Whenever the 'wandering Honourable (ghumantu maananiye)' finds a moment of respite from election campaigning, he should cast a glance at the plight of the daughters of his own Uttar Pradesh. In any case, apart from injustice and oppression, no sister, daughter, or mother of this state holds any hope from you," Yadav added.
