Lok Sabha Election 2024: Ahead Of Exit Polls, Prashant Kishor Predicts BJP's Walkover On June 4

With voting in Lok Sabha elections 2024 nearing its end, the focus is now on the Exit Polls which will go live by 6.30 pm. Poll strategist Prashant Kishor has predicted a repeat win for the BJP. He has said that the saffron party would get the same number of 303 seats. He also claimed that the tally may slightly go up, as he does not find any reason for the party to lose in north and west. Read on to find more on what he said about the BJP's numbers.

Hyderabad:Hours before pollsters release their Exit Polls to the Lok Sabha election 2024, Poll strategist Prashant Kishor has predicted that the saffron party would emerge victorious for a third straight term and that their numbers may go up. BJP alone won 303 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

On Saturday, 57 seats spread across seven states and the Union territory of Chandigarh went to polls in the seventh and final phase of Lok Sabha elections. Counting of the votes polled during the Lok Sabha Election 2024 will take place on June 4, to choose 542 representatives to the Parliament. Before the counting is complete, the Exit Polls have usually been used by the stakeholders to see which way the wind is blowing and to make their informed choices. Sometimes, these predictions have come a cropper, too. Yet, the pull the pollsters and poll managers enjoyed had never receded.

Prashant Kihsor was seen making this call, in a video interview with The Print, where he told the interviewee that the party's chances will not be dented by the west and south since they are going to win the north and east, the same way they did in 2019.

Kishor who had earlier worked with the saffron party also said that the right-wing party is increasing its vote share.

"To my mind, more or less BJP uh is going to come back with a similar or slightly better majority," he said.

"After meeting people from various states and journalists, obviously beyond, they would have their interest in who is going to win the Indian election, and in that context whatever little understanding we have, I have said that," he added.

Kishor said he had given a reason for his call. He said he never saw the BJP taking any "material hit" in terms of seats.

"When I say material there is a lot of questioning around that. What constitutes material. I say, you know material is a number which you cannot make up for any other reason," he said, adding "so in our understanding, it's about 50 or odd seats."

The poll manager said, "If BJP were to lose 50 plus seats in north and west from where they won close to 250 seats there is no way they could have made it up in east and south. "

"In my assessment, BJP is not losing that many seats in West and north and on top of it they have adequate cover, in terms of increasing vote share as well as," said Kishor, brimming with confidence.

He said BJP has been strong in north and west whereas "they are relatively either second player or not even a relevant player" in east and south.

"When I say east and south, I include States like Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Put together roughly about 220 odd seats, where BJP till now despite their performance, relatively better performance in Bengal and Bihar, have been able to get less than 50 seats," the poll strategist said, adding that "This time, I see them increasing that tally cumulatively. I'm not talking about State specific prediction but east and south BJP in all likelihood are going to increase their seat tally and vote share."

"Hence, I said that by large they're going to come back with the same numbers or maybe even slightly better if the damage in west and south is not that significant," he added.

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