Pradeep Gupta’s Axis My India ends 9-year association with India Today; to stream exit polls with newly-founded Red Mike

Renowned pollster Pradeep Gupta has ended his association with India Today. His firm Axis My India will not be involved in Exit Polls with the India Today group for Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir elections.

The Exit Poll for Haryana and J&K elections will start coming after the single-phase polling of Haryana is over at 6 pm on October 5. The polling in Jammu and Kashmir was held in three phases – September 18, 25 and October 1. The results of both the assembly elections will be declared on October 8.

Gupta tweeted on October 3 that Axis My India Exit Poll results will be streamed live from 6 PM on October 5 on Axis My India You Tube channel and from 7 PM onwards on Red Mike, the You Tube news channel headed by former NDTV journalist, Sanket Upadhyay.

Remember, Gupta's Axis My India had a nine-year long association with India Today until the results of Lok Sabha elections 2024. In fact, Axis My India Chairman and Managing Director, Pradeep Gupta broke into tears on LIVE TV as the consumer data intelligence company’s exit poll results turned out to be far away from the actual outcome of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024.

Exit Poll predictions by Axis My India have been mostly accurate barring exceptions in 2024 general elections and West Bengal assembly elections in 2021.

Axis My India had predicted that Bhartiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could potentially win over 400 seats in the Lok Sabha, fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Abki Baar 400 Paar” promise. The exit poll estimated that the BJP would win between 322 to 340 seats, an increase from the 303 seats they won in 2019.

But as it turned out, the BJP fell short of simple majority and NDA ended at 293 seats.

What are Exit Polls?

Exit Polls are predictions are based on voter feedback collected by survey agencies after the polling. While the idea behind the exit polls is toreflect public sentimentwell before the actual results are announced, their accuracy has faced scrutiny in the past.

The Election Commission of India prohibits conducting exit polls during the voting process, but they are allowed to be published 30 minutes after the last vote is cast. As per the rules, exit poll data cannot be released before 6:30 pm on October 5, the polling date in Haryana.

The Rules

This is governed by Section 126A of the Representation of the People's Act, 1951. “No person shall conduct any exit poll and publish or publicise by means of the print or electronic media or disseminate in any other manner, whatsoever, the result of an exit poll during such period as may be notified by the Election Commission in this regard,” reads the Section 126A of the RP Act, 1951.

Yet, many TV channels start publishing the exit polls with a different name or title even before the last phase of the election is over, perhaps, due to curiosity about which party could be the possible winner.