The Hindu Business Line : General Elections

Forget minor quarrels, missing names and pin pricks here and there. It will not be an exaggeration if the country can say that it is the people of India who have won — not any party or leaders.

V. S. Venkatavaradan

Salem

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The election results have once again proved the exit polls wrong. All the calculations of the pollsters and various television channels were way off the mark.

The people of India have once again proved that it is impossible for anybody to read their mind.

No television channel had predicted that the Congress(I) would put up such a good showing. Neither did they predict that the NDA would fare so poorly.

The Indian voter has shown that in a democracy nobody wins until the actual results are announced.

There should also be debate on whether such exit polls should be allowed.

The exit polls have a tendency to influence the voters' minds, especially in an election that takes place in many phases. The people who vote in the later phases may be influenced by the exit polls of the earlier phases.

V. Rahul

Chennai

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