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Union minister Kiren Rijiju, a veteran of many elections, told NDTV today that the strong support from Prime Minister Narendra Modi across the country will ensure that the BJP will be back in power for a historic third term, no matter what the Opposition says. The Opposition, he added, will soon have a rude awakening. As the BJP surpasses the prediction of the exit polls, the Congress will be routed in states “where they had some little hope,” he added.

Three exit polls predicted yesterday that the NDA will hit the “400 paar” target.

An aggregate of 12 exit polls indicated that the NDA will get 365 seats, the INDIA bloc will get 146 seats. The BJP’s individual score will be 317 seats and the Congress 61, up from the 52 seats it won in the last general election.

Mr Rijiju, who said last month that the BJP will win 313 seats, did not predict any figure, but his travels made one thing clear.

“Across the country — east, west north south — I have seen a very same kind of pattern… that Narendra Modi has to become the Prime Minister again,” he told NDTV in an exclusive interview. Then he added, ‘I want to go one step further. I think we will cross even the figures given by the exit polls — that is my personal reading”.

The Opposition, he said, “to discredit the exit polls, is basically making themselves happy for two days”.

“On the fourth, the result will come. So they are preparing to create some kind of confusion and excuses just to get away from the humiliation they are going to be facing. They will be routed in some of the states where Congress was making big claims. They will be routed in those states where they had some little hope,” he added.