A pollster broke down and began crying during a television appearance Tuesday as his exit poll predictions for India’s general election were shown to be wide of the mark.
Multiple exit polls indicated that incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi would win a sweeping third term victory with his BJP party winning an overall majority which would allow it to rule by itself. But as the results started to come in, the race proved to be closer than many analysts said it would be.
Pradeep Gupta, the founder of polling firm Axis My India, was grilled about the difference between his forecast and the actual results on the India Today channel. “The good thing is he’s being magnanimous, he’s apologized for the error,” host Rahul Kanwal said. Kanwal then went over to shake Gupta’s hand, saying “you win some and you lose some” and assuring Gupta that he “still has a fabulous track record in terms of polling.”
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At that point, Gupta started to weep and cover his face with his hands. Other people on the set, including Kanwal, tried to console him.
Modi’s party had expected to sweep all before it, making him the most powerful Indian leader in generations. The BJP set out to win 400 seats in the election, much more than the 272 required to form a majority government. As of Tuesday night local time, the results indicated that his Hindu nationalist party would not reach the 272 threshold on its own, and would need to rely on other parties in his NDA alliance to form a government.
Despite the setback, Modi claimed victory and claimed voters had “placed their faith in NDA, for a third consecutive time!” “This is a historical feat in India’s history,” he wrote in an X post.
