Don't believe exit polls, everyone knows what happened in K'taka: Shivakumar

Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar has said he is ready to take any responsibility that the party gives him following the announcement of exit polls predicting a fractured verdict in the recent assembly polls in the five states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Mizoram.

Responding to a reporter's query on the exit poll projections, Shivakumar said, "I do not believe in exit polls personally. You all know what happened to the exit poll projections in Karnataka (referring to widespread predictions of a hung assembly in the state in May). Only those who spend time on the ground know the reality. Exit polls are sample-based and do not reflect the entire picture of a state."

Asked if Congress legislators will be housed in Bengaluru in view of hung assembly projections in some of the states, the deputy chief minister said, "I am confident that Congress party will come to power in most of the states, including Rajasthan. We have to work as per the party directives if it is needed."

The statements have stirred a debate at the national level as Shivakumar has handled crisis situations earlier for the Congress, including taking care of Karnataka MLAs from Maharashtra at a resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru when the Congress government feared poaching by the BJP.

In 2019, Shivakumar was arrested by the ED in a money laundering case. He was lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail under judicial custody, and was released on bail on 23 October following a Delhi High Court order.

Earlier, Shivakumar had said he had two choices — between joining the BJP and going to the jail — and he chose the latter. In October, Shivakumar had refuted the CBI’s claim that "90 per cent of the investigation against him in the disproportionate assets case is complete", saying no CBI official had approached him till date with regard to the case.

Speaking to media after the Karnataka High Court rejected his plea to quash the disproportionate assets case on 19 October, he had added that his case was handed over to the CBI by the previous BS Yediyurappa government owing to “political reasons”.