‘We shouldn’t have obsessed with numbers’: Congressman Prashant Kishore admits Lok Sabha election assessment was wrong

Poll strategist Prashant Kishore has broken his silence for the first time since the Bharatiya Janata Party fell short of a majority in the Lok Sabha elections, admitting that its pre-election predictions were wrong and adding that the number of seats would be much more out of reach.

Kishor, who campaigned for the BJP in 2014, YSRCP in 2019 and Trinamool Congress in 2021, said predictions were wrong in three states — Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal — which had reduced the BJP’s vote tally from its 2019 tally.

“Yes, I and pollsters like me were wrong. We are ready to be humble,” Prashant Kishore said in an interview. India Today TV Following the results of the House of Representatives elections.

Prashant Kishor predicted that the Bharatiya Janata Party would win around 300 seats in the Indian Lok Sabha elections. The party ended up winning 240 of the 543 seats, 32 seats short of a majority.

Asked if he would continue to predict election results, the pollster said: “No, I will no longer comment on the number of seats in the election.”

“I have given you all my assessment but I have to admit on camera that it was wrong by 20 per cent in terms of numbers. We had predicted that the BJP would get close to 300 votes but the actual figure was 240. But I had said earlier that there is some anger against Narendra Modi but no widespread discontent,” Prashant Kishore added.

“I also said that there was no positive voice from the opposition and hence the status quo was created with geographical expansion in the East and South. Now, obviously we have been proven wrong. But if you just look at the numbers, it is not so wrong because in the end they got 36 percent vote share and that is the status quo. In terms of vote share, it is down 0.7 percent,” he further explained.