'Ready to eat humble pie': Prashant Kishor on getting poll predictions wrong

Kishor, renowned for his acumen at gauging India's political landscape, conceded that his projections had significantly missed the mark in several key areas

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor has acknowledged that his predictions for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were incorrect, stating that he is "ready to eat the humble pie" for the inaccuracies in his pre-poll assessments. "Yes, I and pollsters like me got it wrong. We are ready to eat the humble pie," Prashant Kishor said in his first interview with India Today TV after the Lok Sabha election results.

Ahead of the announcement of Lok Sabha election results on June 4, Kishor had predicted that the BJP would repeat its 2019 election performance and secure around 300 seats. He even took a swipe at his "detractors," advising them to "stay hydrated" and "keep plenty of water handy on June 4."

However, his predictions went awry as the BJP managed to secure only 240 Lok Sabha seats, 20 percent fewer than it won in the 2019 elections. The BJP was able to form a majority government thanks to its NDA allies, who helped push the coalition's tally past the critical threshold of 272 seats.
When asked whether he would continue predicting numbers in future elections in the country, Prashant Kishor responded, "No, I would not get into the number of seats in elections anymore."

Kishor, renowned for his acumen at gauging India's political landscape, conceded that his projections had significantly missed the mark in several key areas.

"I had also said that there was no positive clamour from the opposition, which is why a status quo was being created with some geographical expansion in the east and south. Now, obviously, we have been proved wrong. But if you look beyond the numbers, it's not entirely off. They ultimately got a 36 percent vote share, which is the status quo, only 0.7 percent down in terms of vote share," he explained. Furthermore, the election expert acknowledged that engaging in numerical projections was a mistake and pledged to refrain from doing so in future elections.

"As a strategist, I should not have delved into the numbers. I never used to. It's only in the last two years that I've made these mistakes. Once for Bengal and this time for the Lok Sabha elections. Notably, if you remove the numerical aspect, everything else I said was accurate," he said.