The vote count for the 18th General Elections has the entire nation glued to their screens. Before the results, predictions from political strategist Prashant Kishor and psephologist Yogendra Yadav had created waves in the political circles. As we navigate through rounds of vote count, the predictions made by Kishor and Yadav are worth examining:
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Yogendra Yadav
According to Yadav, the BJP is unlikely to cross 272 seats (majority required in Lok Sabha) on its own. He has predicted that the ruling party will win around 250 seats which can come down to 230.
Dismissing the 'Abki Baar 400 Par' narrative, Yogendra Yadav said that BJP's allies in the NDA will at most bring 35-45 seats to the coalition.
As for the grand old party Congress, Yadav said that it will improve from its abyssal score of 52 seats in the 2019 elections to 85-100 seats in 2024. Other INDIA block allies have been predicted to win 120-135 seats, making the opposition's total around 205.
It is worth noting that in the 2019 elections, Yogendra Yadav had predicted the BJP to win 180 seats, which was in stark contrast to the actual result of the saffron party winning 224.
Prashant Kishor
On the other hand, political analyst Prashant Kishor has predicted that the NDA will come to power with a comfortable majority. As for the BJP, he has stated that the party is likely to get a similar number of seats as it did in the 2019 elections.
Speaking on region-wise predictions, Kishor said that the BJP is likely to not suffer any setbacks in North and Western areas.
His recent interview with Karan Thapar had made rounds after a heated exchange flared up between Thapar and Kishor. When his prediction of BJP winning over 300 seats was questioned by Thapar while referring to his failed prediction of Congress' loss in Himachal Pradesh, Kishor denied ever making such an estimate. This was despite several records of Kishor making the Congress will be routed prediction in 2022.
As for the Congress, Kishor has said that the grand old party will not be able to cross more than 100 seats without giving any concrete number. 'There is no bottom to the pit", he said.
It will be worth seeing if these contrasting predictions by Yadav and Kishor will stand the test of time and if vote counting continues.