And the winner is… ‘Modi Magic’. The losers are the exit polls and TV news—besides the Congress and Bharat Rashtra Samithi, of course.
In fact, I’m wondering if you should watch the assembly elections’ result coverage at all: the exit polls were off the mark, early leads in all states were misleading—barring Telangana—and news channels provided contrasting figures for each party, leaving you confused and more confused. You might as well have slept through Sunday morning.
The key lesson from the election results in four states is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the Lionel Messi of mass politics, winning 3-1 against exit polls.
Major pollsters and TV anchors alike need to explain why their 30 November projections and on-air analysis promised a neck-and-neck battle when there are now huge victories for BJP in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. None of the major five polls told us that the BJP would sweep Chhattisgarh either. Hindi news channels went on about a ‘kaante ki takkar’ there. News 24, India TV, and India Today suggested a victory for the BJP in Madhya Pradesh but without a lot of conviction in their commentary. The ground coverage of the campaigns in the last month hadn’t indicated a Congress meltdown either, so Sunday morning viewers were looking forward to a keen fight. Instead, there was a BJP knock-out punch.
Also read: BJP sweeps heartland in Rajasthan, MP & Chhattisgarh. Consolation prize for Congress in Telangana
Kamal ka kamaal
Another lesson from the results: ignore the claims of bombastic promos by news channels that they are the most accurate fortune tellers of election results. India Today, in particular, should display a little humility. Its constant self-congratulation in the media is irritating and downright silly. When the results came in on Sunday, the channel’s figures fell short.
Anchor Rahul Kanwal promised a ‘super over’ in Chhattisgarh, when the BJP comfortably achieved a win over the Congress.
The only good thing that came out of the India Today-Axis polls mishit is that we were spared the bizarre sight of anchors Kanwal, Rajdeep Sardesai, and psephologist Pradeep Gupta dancing in the TV studio—something they have done in the past to celebrate their predictions.
Lesson three from watching the counting of votes: don’t rush to tune into the news or to YouTube channels even before you have woken up. The news channels pleaded with us to join them at 7 am but you shouldn’t have bothered before 10:30 am when the results became clear and ‘Kamal ka Kamaal’ (News India) was a sight to behold.
Tight fight to clean sweep
If you tuned in earlier, you’ll wish you hadn’t. From the moment the channels were ‘on your marks, get set – go’, they showed us different leads for the BJP or Congress in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh—NewsNation said it’s 105 BJP and 95 Congress in Madhya Pradesh. TV9 said the opposite: 106 for Congress and 98 for BJP; CNN-News 18 told us to expect a “tight fight” in the state.
Similarly, all channels predicted the Rajasthan poll contest to be ‘50:50’ (Republic TV) between the two national parties. NDTV 24×7 and India Today showed Congress sitting pretty at 48 seats in Chhattisgarh for most of the morning when ABP News told us that the results are 50-38 in favour of BJP. Huh?
From 8 am to 10:15 am these, ding-dong “up and down” projections addled our brains. That’s because news channels followed different counting rounds in each state to reflect varying seat margins between the parties. The viewer? Well, we were simply bemused.
By 1 pm onwards, news channels provided us scenes of revelry and merriment in Jaipur, Bhopal, and Raipur for BJP supporters. They showed interviews with beaming BJP politicians who attributed the victories first to Modi and then to other leaders—or as Times Now put it, ‘Modi magic sweeps Hindi heartland’, ‘Shah’s Chanakya neeti powers BJP’.
Thereafter, they spent hours on magic maps and graphics to explain the reasons for the BJP’s ‘complete consolidation…’ (Times Now) in the minutest details. This would have been of great interest only to the channels as it showed them where they had gone wrong in their estimates.
Also read: How MP’s ‘Mama’ Shivraj Singh Chouhan, under siege from within, turned things around for BJP
Subdued coverage
When it became clear that the Congress was staring at defeat in three states, the anchors and guest-experts said it eyed a grim future. The party needs to find answers as to why it could not win where it could have, said social scientist Yogendra Yadav to News Nation. The BJP’s victories by such large margins are bad for the Congress and the I.N.D.I.A coalition, said the Times Now Navbharat anchor. And everyone nodded their heads in agreement. ‘No Gandhigiri in the heartland,’ said India Today.
Not surprisingly, Congress leaders or spokespersons were missing from the studios. However, Times Now discovered that in the Congress war room, the channel was being watched. “Boycott us as much as you like, but you’re watching Times Now,” laughed anchor Navika Kumar, referring to I.N.D.I.A’s ‘boycott’ of her.
Overall, the coverage was subdued, which is odd, given the BJP’s margins of victory. The usually loud and loquacious Arnab Goswami of Republic TV was unusually calm (for him at least) and it was left to highly excitable reporters from party headquarters to do the shouting. The Sunday morning anchor of ABP News had this unique ability to speak without pausing for breath, so we ended up holding our breaths along with her. Whew!
As for graphics and computer pyrotechnics, the prize goes to India TV for showing PM Modi as a Greek or Roman warrior and to Zee News for its CGI of BJP president JP Nadda sailing serenely down a lake in Rajasthan.
That leads us to the evening festivities at the BJP headquarters in Delhi, with PM Modi…enjoy.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)