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Prashant Kishor's first reaction after Lok Sabha prediction proven wrong
Prashant Kishor had predicted the Bharatiya Janata Party's seat tally could be close to or even surpass its 2019 tally of 303.
Election strategist Prashant Kishor on Friday admitted that his assessment of Lok Sabha election results was ‘wrong’.
"Yes, I and pollsters like me got it wrong. We are ready to eat the humble pie," the Jan Suraj founder told India Today in an interview.
Ahead of the June 4 Lok Sabha election results, Kishor had predicted the Bharatiya Janata Party's seat tally could be close to or even surpass its 2019 tally of 303.
The Lok Sabha election results turned out to be completely opposite to the exit poll projections that had predicted a landslide win for Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The BJP's seat tally dropped to 240, lower than the previous election. The saffron camp-led alliance is now dependent on the likes of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (United) for majority in the lower house. The NDA as of now has 293 seats and Modi is set to take oath as prime minister for the third time on June 9.
During the India Today interview, Kishor declared that he would not get into predicting seats won in the elections in future. The poll strategist, whose team advised BJP to its victory in the 2014 general elections, conceded that his projections ‘significantly missed the mark’ in several key areas.
“I had put my assessment in front of you and I have to admit on camera that the assessment that I 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,” he said, while asserting that he did mention there was a little anger but no widespread discontent against Modi.
Prashant Kishor told India Today that there was no ‘positive clamour’ from the opposition and that is why a status quo is being created with some geographical expansion in the east and south.
"Now, obviously, we have been proved wrong. But 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," Kishor added.
