Yogendra Yadav says BJP won’t get majority, Prashant Kishor predicts 300+. What’s their reasoning?

As the six-week-long Lok Sabha elections enters its final two phases, predictions about the results made by former psephologist Yogendra Yadav and former political strategist Prashant Kishor have stirred a debate over the last few days – as much for their contradictory forecasts as for the motivations being attributed to each of the men for reaching those conclusions.

Yadav, who heads the Swaraj Abhiyan political party, has said in several interviews that the Bharatiya Janata Party will fall short of the majority mark of 272 seats in the Lok Sabha, losing at least 50 seats from its 2019 tally of 303. Kishor, on the other hand, the chief of the Jan Suraaj political party, has predicted that the BJP is well poised to retain its current tally and could in fact add to it.

The diametrically opposite predictions from two men who have been in the business of analysing elections have been dissected avidly and the two have defended their conclusions vigorously. This was seen most dramatically on Wednesday, when journalist Karan Thapar asked Kishor about an election prediction he made in 2022 that proved to be wrong, sparking a heated exchange.

During an interview with Karan Thapar, @PrashantKishor says, "Show me a video of me...

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