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Bihar Polls 2015: Pollsters Today's Chanakya Apologises For Wrongly Predicting Bihar Results

Apologies For Not Getting Bihar Right, Says Today's Chanakya
Indian Janta Dal United activists and supporters celebrate after a victory by an alliance, led by their party, in New Delhi on November 8, 2015, in the Bihar state assembly elections. Narendra Modi conceded defeat November 8 in a key election in Bihar, one of India's poorest and largest states, in a major blow for the prime minister who fronted a no-holds barred campaign. Modi's Hindu nationalist party was leading in only 58 seats in the 243-seat state assembly compared to 160 for a coalition of rival regional parties, as vote counting continued. AFP PHOTO / SAJJAD HUSSAIN (Photo credit should read SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images)
SAJJAD HUSSAIN via Getty Images
Indian Janta Dal United activists and supporters celebrate after a victory by an alliance, led by their party, in New Delhi on November 8, 2015, in the Bihar state assembly elections. Narendra Modi conceded defeat November 8 in a key election in Bihar, one of India's poorest and largest states, in a major blow for the prime minister who fronted a no-holds barred campaign. Modi's Hindu nationalist party was leading in only 58 seats in the 243-seat state assembly compared to 160 for a coalition of rival regional parties, as vote counting continued. AFP PHOTO / SAJJAD HUSSAIN (Photo credit should read SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images)

Today's Chanakya, a public opinion polling company, on Sunday apologised for wrongly predicting the Bihar election results. Chanakya created quite a stir when they predicted 155 seats for NDA against 83 for the grand alliance of RJD and JD(U) even as all major exit polls either foretold a neck and neck fight between the two or gave the alliance a slight edge.

The Times Now-CVoter poll predicted 111 seats for the BJP alliance and 122 for Mahagathbandhan.

On Sunday as the trends started to come in, it became amply clear that Today's Chanakya's prediction was entirely off the mark. They were forced to send out this tweet.

#TCExitPoll

We sincerely apologise all our friends & well wishers for not able to predict Bihar.

Congratulations to the winning alliance.

— Today's Chanakya (@TodaysChanakya) November 8, 2015

By 10 AM on Sunday it was clear that the grand alliance of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was about to score a thumping majority over the NDA. The alliance, which comprises the Janata Dal-United, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress, joined hands to fight the election to the 243-member Bihar assembly in five phases between 10 October and 5 November.

However, the apology notwithstanding, the pollster became the butt of cruel Twitter humour and started to trend.

Amit Shah visited Today's Chanakya office. #BiharResultspic.twitter.com/flj1z4qGws

— Sumit. (@sirpunch_) November 8, 2015

This was Today's Chanakya's exit poll. Or as my friend @TasleemKhan says, Chanakya was beaten by Magadh. pic.twitter.com/D9gYcvqgcB

— Bodhisattva Sen Roy (@insenroy) November 8, 2015

Pic 1: Yesterday's Chanakya

Pic 2: Today's Chanakya pic.twitter.com/7yGBe34KFz

— oculus (@daddy_san) November 8, 2015

Fire crackers in two places today:

1. Pakistan.

2. Today's Chanakya office.

— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) November 8, 2015

Before election: It's BJP vs Mahagathbandhan

After election: It's @CvoterIndia vs Today's Chanakya #BiharElections

— Vimal Sagar Tiwari (@SagarVimal) November 5, 2015

Some ppl who assume they are today's Chanakya will be intolerably angry at @TodaysChanakya

— Partha Ghosh (@heyyparth) November 5, 2015

But they had support too.

@TodaysChanakya not ur mistake..u did ur best..sometimes u win some sometimes u lose some.. No question on ur integrity

— MI (@mkk3601) November 8, 2015

@TodaysChanakya people criticize u 4 MH, Haryana & Jharkhand predictions. But they 4get that you correctly predicted the winners even there.

— Anand A (@Ami_Ana) November 8, 2015

Ah well, as Ravi Shastri would say, "As the day progresses, it's only going to get hotter!"

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.