Election Results 2019: How Axis My India nailed the exit polls

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It is a spot-on-season for Axis My India, as the company projected numbers with mind-boggling accuracy in the exit polls. It had predicted 339-365 seats for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) would grab 77 to 108 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. "Vindication, like victory is always sweet," said Mukesh Kabra, director, Axis-My India from the firm's Andheri office.

Speaking about hitting the bull's eye with numbers, Kabra said, "It was the result of the training our surveyors get. The training is conducted with great dedication and consistency. For this election exit poll, like the others, our team was trained for a year."

He further said that they had a team of 500 who fanned out across the nation. "We went from village to village and to urban centres too. Yet, it is the rural people who are more amenable to reveal who they have voted for. The urban centres prove more difficult. This election we noticed a sense of fear in West Bengal, and people were wary about telling the team surveyor who they had voted for."

The director added, "Those living in the slum pockets of urban areas are also upfront about who they voted for, yet the urban urbane, elite, high-class people are usually tight-lipped." Kabra said this was a resounding answer too, to those who accused exit pollsters of pandering to a party. "The exit poll was absolutely non-partisan and we are certainly not slanted towards any party, as some skeptics may have claimed."

He explained, "The poll is done by meeting people at their homes. It needs great skill, because you barely have four minutes to convince somebody to tell you who they voted for. This is also never asked amidst a group of people in a public place but at home. Many of the surveyors have rural roots. They go in with a clean slate, a clean mind, absolutely not swayed by any party line. Once they get an answer, they have to wipe their mind clean like a slate and move on to the next one. It is a clean, specific and accurate methodology." The director attributed the results to "great teamwork" by the 20-year-old company, which has been conducting exit polls since the past six years.

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