New Delhi, Oct 6 : As the Haryana and J&K Assembly elections draw to a close, survey agencies are back in action with their Exit Polls. However, one must question why these pollsters should be trusted, especially given the numerous instances of significant inaccuracies in their projections in the past.

While Exit Polls claim to offer insights into voter sentiment, a closer look at past elections - Lok Sabha and Assembly - reveals a troubling trend: pollsters frequently misjudge actual outcomes. The consistent failures of Exit Polls to align with reality raise serious doubts about their reliability.

Based on some data related to past predictions, IANS has made an assessment of the history of overestimations by the Exit Polls.

2014 Lok Sabha elections

In the 2014 parliamentary elections, pollsters predicted a substantial win for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), with an average prediction of 283 seats. But the actual result was a massive 336 seats for the NDA. The BJP alone secured 282 seats. This suggests that the polls could not gauge the scale of the win. This underlined the disconnect between the data and voter mood.

2019 Lok Sabha elections

The prediction in 2019 polls was that the NDA would secure around 306 seats. On the contrary, the NDA bagged 353 seats. The BJP alone got 303. Once again, the Exit Polls failed to judge the mood of the electorate. Voters favoured the NDA by a larger margin than what was predicted.