Poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who had predicted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will get a comfortable majority in Lok Sabha elections 2024, accepted that the assessment was wrong.
“Yes, I and pollsters like me got it wrong. We are ready to eat the humble pie,” reported India Today, quoting Kishor.
Alike Kishor, at least 10 exit polls projected majority for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with 350 plus seats, while three exit polls also predicted 400 plus seats. Whereas, INDIA bloc was projected to get less than 180 seats.
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However, on the counting day, almost all the exit polls failed in their predictions as NDA got 292 seats and INDIA bloc 232 seats.
Kishor said that he has to admit on camera that the assessment that he did was wrong in terms of numbers by a big 20 per cent.
“We were saying BJP would get somewhere close to 300 and they got 240,” Prashant Kishor told India Today.
However, the poll strategist added that he had said that there was a little anger, but no widespread discontent against Narendra Modi.
While stating that he should not have got into numbers, Kishor added that if you just go beyond the numbers, it’s not that wrong. “Because ultimately, they got 36 per cent vote share, which is the status quo. 0.7 per cent down in terms of vote share.”
After the last phase of voting on June 1, Kishor had also taken a swipe at his critics.
“Next time when it comes to elections and politics, do not waste your precious time on the idle talk and analysis of fake journalists, loud mouth politicians and self-proclaimed experts on social media,” said Kishor in a post in Hindi on X.
In April, speaking to PTI, Kishor has also suggested that Rahul Gandhi should consider stepping back if the Congress does not get the desired results in the Lok Sabha polls.