There were assembly elections in four states — Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, along with the 17th Lok Sabha Elections.

The exit polls are based on responses of the people who have cast their votes. Pollsters predict the results much before the actual counting of votes.

In March, the Election Commission announced that exit polls can only be telecast after the final phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections that ends today. The advisory is also applicable for the assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim.

Exit polls will start coming today after 6 pm. For the first time, the Election Commission covered websites and social media platforms in its advisory.

Follow updates here:

8:10 pm IST ‘74 seats not difficult to achieve in Odisha Assembly’: BJP leaders The magic number in Odisha Assembly is 74 which senior BJD leaders say would not be difficult to achieve considering the overall popularity of chief minister Naveen Patnaik.





7:50 pm IST In Odisha Assembly, BJP party hopes to get around 50-55 seats In Odisha Assembly, BJP party hopes to get around 50-55 seats. Party’s ational secretary Suresh Pujari however says Odisha would surprise everyone as the support for PM Narendra Modi was unprecedented.





7:40 pm IST KCR’s TRS to win big in Telangana, says exit polls According to the Times Now-VMR exit poll, the TRS will win 13 of the 17 seats while the Congress will win 2. The BJP and MIM will bag one seat each, says the poll.





7:25 pm IST YSRC confident of crossing the three-figure mark in the 175-member assembly The mood in the YSRC is very much upbeat as it is confident of coming to power by crossing the three-figure mark in the 175-member assembly.





7:02 pm IST ‘No party will get a majority in these elections’: SBSP chief OM Prakash Rajbhar “No party will get a majority in these elections. But the SP-BSP alliance will get a massive victory in Purvanchal (eastern Uttar Pradesh). Without our support the BJP will suffer losses in at least 30 seats in Purvanchal. It is losing Balia, Gorakhpur and Ghazipur seats,” said OM Prakash Rajbhar.





6:50 pm IST ABP News-AC Nielsen predicts 22 seats for NDA in UP According to ABP News-AC Nielsen, in Uttar Pradesh, NDA will secure 22 seats, UPA will secure 2 seats and 56 seats will go to ‘others’.





6:25 pm IST Watch: Live analysis of Exit Polls 2019





5:55 pm IST Centre for the Study of Developing Societies developed exit polls in 1960s In India, exit polls were almost indigenously developed by the pioneering Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in the 1960s.





5:45 pm IST Voter behaviour survey determines opinion poll An opinion poll is a voter behaviour survey conducted in order to find out the opinion of the people, including those who may or may not vote, before voting takes place. An exit poll is done right after people have voted on an election day.





5:40 pm IST Most exit polls overrated NDA’s win in 1999 elections In the 1999 elections, forced by an early collapse of the government led by BJP’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee, most polls overrated the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA’s) win. They gave the NDA overwhelming 315-plus seats but it actually won 296.





5:30 pm IST Four exit polls predicted wrongly At least four exit polls have predicted wrongly, barring those in the 1998 and 2014 general polls.





5:20 pm IST 278 candidates including 22 women in the in fray in Punjab In Punjab, a total of 278 candidates including 22 women are in the in fray. Bollywood actor Sunny Deol is the BJP candidate from Gurdaspur while former Union minister Preneet Kaur wife for Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh is contesting from her home turf of Patiala for the fifth consecutive time.





5:15 pm IST Cong leaders believe MP’s ruling party will turn the tables on BJP Congress leaders in Madhya Pradesh, including chief minister Kamal Nath, have claimed that there is no change in public sentiment in the last six months and that the state’s ruling party will turn the tables on the BJP this time too.





5:00 pm IST ‘Confident of victory irrespective of what exit polls predict’: Naidu The TDP leaders have kept their fingers crossed, though Chandrababu Naidu has been putting up a brave front saying the TDP will definitely come to power for a second term, irrespective of what the exit polls and pre-poll surveys say.





4:40 pm IST Exit poll results not always correct predictions of results The exit polls are based on the poll of voters taken immediately after they exit the polling stations, and they do not always predict the results correctly. The actual results will only be known on Thursday, May 23, when votes are counted.





4:15 pm IST National pollsters to release predictions after voting ends National pollsters Times Now-VMR, India Today-Axis, CNN IBN-IPSOS, ABP-AC Nielsen, Republic TV-C Voter, News 24-Chanakya and India TV-CNX will release their predictions after 6.30 pm.



