Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hit out on the Gandhi family on Monday, a day after exit polls predicted a mammoth win for the BJP in the Lok Sabha Elections. In his blog, Mr Jaitley described the Gandhis as an "albatross around the neck" of the Congress.

In his blog titled "The Message of Exit Polls", he said, "I re-assert my earlier hypothesis that in the Congress the first family is no longer an asset but an albatross around neck of the Party. Without the family, they don't get the crowd, with it they don't get the votes."

Many Congress presidents, including current chief Rahul Gandhi, come from the Nehru-Gandhi family.

The exit polls which were declared at 6:30 pm yesterday have predicted that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) may win 302 of 543 seats and the Congress and its allies will get 122 seats which will create a flutter in the opposition ranks. Many opposition leaders have rubbished the exit polls, claiming they have been wrong in the past.

Jaitley, however, said the exit polls have sent out a message.

"Many of us may continue to squabble over correctness and accuracy of the Exit Polls. The hard reality is that when multiple Exit Polls convey the same message, the direction of the result broadly would be in consonance with the message," his blog read.

He also took a dig at the opposition, calling their alliances "coalition of rivals".

"'Coalition of Rivals' are untenable alliances and the voters are no longer willing to trust them. Political analysts are confused but the voters are clear. They don't elect hung Parliament where ugly and untenable coalitions have a role to play," he said.

"The arithmetic of caste coalitions loses to the chemistry on the ground created for the front runner in the elections. This chemistry is in form of catching the imagination of the people on issues of national interest," he added.

The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party had made an alliance in Uttar Pradesh to keep BJP at bay from the state. However, the poll of polls, an aggregate of exit polls predicted 49 seats for the BJP in the state and has given 29 seats to the alliance. Congress is set to do no better than it did in 2014 - two seats, if exit polls prove correct.

The Congress and regional parties were in talks for a pan-India alliance against the BJP. After the talks failed, the party contested the national elections with coalitions in Bihar and Tamil Nadu.

The exit polls have predicted a huge win for the saffron party in Bihar, West Bengal and Odhisha while Congress has a strong 27 out of 38 seats in Tamil Nadu.

Many opposition leaders like West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, TDP's N Chandrababu Naidu and the Congress's Shashi Tharoor have debunked the exit poll results. Meanwhile, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah tweeted:

Every single exit poll can’t be wrong! Time to switch off the TV, log out of social media & wait to see if the world is still spinning on its axis on the 23rd.

The counting of votes will take place on May 23