When the results of India’s general election were announced on June 4, the biggest losers were the pundits and pollsters, who had almost unanimously predicted an overwhelming victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Their exit poll projections were so far off the mark in several states that one prominent pollster, appearing on India’s most popular English-language television channel, burst into tears on camera when the actual results were revealed.
To be sure, Modi’s BJP has been returned to power. But its victory looks more like a defeat. Far from expanding its formidable majority from 303 to 370 seats in the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of Parliament — as Modi and his principal lieutenant, Home Minister Amit Shah, had predicted — the BJP lost 63 seats.
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