CPI-M rubbishes exit poll forecasts

"There has been a competition among TV channels to broadcast exit polls which predicted that the results will go against the Left Front, but it will ultimately prove otherwise," CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose told reporters.

Emphasising that exit poll forecasts had "always" been proved wrong since the 2001 assembly polls in West Bengal, Bose said, "All such predictions have failed to alter people`s mandate which overwhelmingly elected Left Front to power all these years."

Bose asserted that the Left front would form the government for the eighth consecutive term, adding, "The exit polls will only seek to create confusion among people."

Commenting on the sixth and final phase of polls which completed the entire polling process in the state, the CPI(M) leader alleged in some booths at Gopiballavpur and Binpur in West Midnapur districts, CPI(M) polling agents were "threatened" by the Trinamool Congress workers and the Maoists.

He said a complaint has been lodged with the Election Commission in this regard.