Gujarat exit poll predicts biggest ever BJP win. Hardik raises EVM concerns

The Bharatiya Janata Party appears to be heading towards a comfortable victory in the Gujarat Assembly elections if the exit polls are to be believed. One exit poll - by NewsTV and Today's Chanakya - has even predicted that the BJP's tally could go as high as 146 seats out of 182, a figure which it hasn't touched even when Narendra Modi was chief minister. 

Here are the various exit poll predictions.    News24-Todays Chanakya BJP: 124-146  Congress: 35-58    Times Now-VMR BJP: 113 Congress: 66   India Today-Axis My India BJP: 99-113 Congress: 68-82   ABP-CSDS BJP: 117 Congress: 64   While there is a wide variance in the seat projections, all the exit polls are predicting a clear victory for the BJP. This would come as a huge disappointment to the Congress, which is said to have ran a good campaign in Gujarat under Rahul Gandhi's leadership.    It would also mean that the much-touted shift or Patidar voters to the Congress either did not take place or provoked a counter consolidation of other castes behind the BJP.    Reacting to the exit poll predictions, Patidar leader Hardik Patel tweeted:    "The exit polls are showing that the BJP is winning convincingly so that people don't suspect EVMs. If the election is free and fair, there's no chance of the BJP winning. Satyamev Jayate"   A cross-section of Gujarat-based political analysts find the some of the exit poll predictions exaggerated.    "The delimitation has been such that many seats are urban. It is not surprising that BJP is doing well in these seats. However, even if one factors in BJP's dominance in cities, predictions of 135 seats and above seem off tangent. It is difficult to believe BJP can cross 115," said Rajeev Shah, a veteran political analyst based in Ahmedabad.    It is interesting that the variance in the poll predictions of different exit polls is so wide that it could be the BJP's worst performance in over two decades or its worst.    The party won 121 seats in 1995, 117 seats in 1998, 127 seats in 2002, 117 in 2007 and 116 in 2012.    So if one goes by the upper limit of the News 24-Today's Chanakya prediction, it would be the BJP's best performance ever and just a little less than the Congress 149/182 sweep under Madhavsinh Solanki in 1985, but still below Amit Shah's prediction of 150 seats.    However, if the Times Now-VMR or India Today-Axis predictions turn out to be correct, it would be the BJP's worst performance in over 20 years. 
The results will be announced on 18 December.