Election Results in the past may have come as a shock for the losing party, but they have been equally a setback for Pradeep Gupta and its agency, Axis My India, which releases exit poll results. Axis My India had once boasted about being the most accurate exit polls.
However, Axis My India’s exit poll results for the Chhattisgarh elections 2023, Lok Sabha Election 2024, and Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir Elections this year went awry. In 2019, when Axis My India had a tie-up with India Today news channel, it claimed to have accurately predicted the outcome of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Pradeep Gupta was often seen sobbing on live TV, in happiness and in sadness. His videos went viral with him face-palming and getting emotional.
After the back-to-back debacle, the Maharashtra Election Results came as a last gasp for Axis My India. And Pradeep Gupta is believed to have successfully redeemed himself in the battle of credibility.
“Axis My India predicts the world’s most complicated elections Bang On Where 6 prominent parties and multiple regional parties eating vote shares from each other. Exit Polls turns Exact Poll yet again!,” the agency posted in X on Saturday.
The agency’s statement came as votes were being counted in 288 Assembly constituencies in Maharashtra and 81 Assembly constituencies in Jharkhand. Axis My India claimed that its exit poll results “exactly” matched the official results.
What did Axis My India predict? Axis My India had predicted 178-200 seats for the Mahayuti in Maharashtra – which comprises the BJP, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP.
It said that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) – an alliance of the Congress, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena-UBT and Sharad Pawar’s NCP-SP – may win 82-102 seats. The poll also included the seat share of regional parties which are both these alliances.
What official Maharashtra results showed? As of 5:30 pm on Saturday, the Election Commission data showed that the BJP alone is likely to win 133 of the 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra. As per the data, the Mahayuti was leading on 235 seats – comfortably crossing the majority mark of 145 seats needed to form government in Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, the MVA is leading on nearly 50 seats, according to the Election Commission’s data. The final results for the Maharashtra Assembly Election are yet to be declared after all the votes are counted.
What happened in Jharkhand Election 2024? For Jharkhand, Axis My India’s was the only exit poll that gave an edge to the INDIA bloc and not the BJP-led NDA. It predicted a lead for the Congress/JMM-led INDIA bloc in the state with a share of 53 seats and gave 25 seats to the BJP-led NDA alliance.
The official results also showed the INDIA bloc winning the Jharkhand polls with over 50 of the 81 assembly seats in the state. A political party or an alliance needs 42 seats to form government in Jharkhand.