When is exit poll results for Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Kerala, Assam, Puducherry assembly elections?

New Delhi, Apr 06: All eyes would on exit polls from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, states which went for a single phase polling, as voting nears ending. Election Commission has banned exit polls till 7:30 pm on April 29. It is not going to be out soon as the election commission has banned the publishing of exit poll results till the completion of voting in all poll-bound states.

The poll body has notified this period during which publishing or publicising the result of exit polls by means of the print or electronic media or in any other manner will be prohibited in the ongoing assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry as well bye polls in various states.

The cmmission also prohibited displaying any election matter including results of any opinion poll or any other poll survey, in any electronic media during the period of 48 hours ending with the hour fixed for conclusion of poll in the poll-bound areas in each phase of the election and bye-elections.

What are exit polls?

Exit poll is a post-voting poll, that are conducted just after a voter walks out after casting his/her vote. Such polls aim at predicting the actual result on the basis of the information collected from voters. Also, the exit polls are conducted by a number of organisations. The basic step to predict exit polls is sampling.

As per Section 126A of the Representation of the People's Act, 1951, the Election Commission puts a ban on exit polls from the period between the commencements of the poll until half an hour after the closing of the final phase of the poll.

However, it is not true that the exit polls are factual and correct all the time. In 2004, the exit polls had wrongly predicted the BJP-led NDA coalition winning again.