- Axis My India was the only agency predicting TVK's victory in Tamil Nadu elections
- TVK currently leads in over 100 seats in the 234-member Tamil Nadu assembly
- "All political pundits and observers were all laughing at us," Axis My India chief Pradeep Gupta told NDTV
Axis My India's Pradeep Gupta on Monday told NDTV that people were "laughing" at them when they predicted that actor-politician Vijay's TVK would win the Tamil Nadu assembly elections.
Axis My India was the only polling agency that had projected a victory for TVK in the exit polls, predicting about 98 to 120 seats for the debutant party in the 234-member assembly.
The TVK, or the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, looks set for a surprise electoral show, leading in more than 100 seats after several rounds of counting of votes polled in the April 23 state assembly elections.
"This is the victory of data science," Gupta told NDTV.
"You would see why the other polling agencies could not predict or could not capture the mood on the ground because we at Axis My India go to all the seats all the time," he said.
"Across the country, nobody was believing this. They said it was all a fluke. All the political pundits, observers, and other polling agencies were all laughing at Axis My India when we predicted Tamil Nadu and, too, Vijay's victory in this fashion," he said.
Asked if he "underestimated" the ruling DMK alliance, to which he had projected 92 to 100 seats and a vote share of 35 per cent, Gupta said their vote share as of now is 32 per cent.
He also said that they had predicted a 35 per cent vote share for the TVK, which is the same at this point in time.
"And we predicted the AIADMK alliance (vote share) to be about 23 per cent. They are (currently) at 27 per cent," he said.
He said he was "pretty sure" that Chief Minister MK Stalin's DMK will finish second and Edappadi Karuppa Palaniswami's AIADMK will be in the third position.
As per the latest trends available on the Election Commission website, the DMK is ahead in 48 seats, while the AIADMK is leading in 59.
Why Vijay, TVK Performed Well
Pradeep Gupta said that the young generation had rallied behind Vijay.
He said they had predicted that Vijay and TVK would "score very high" in the age group of 18 to 39, which he said contributes 42 per cent of the voters in Tamil Nadu.
"And he was scoring fairly well among the 40-plus age group, which is around 25 to 30 per cent," he said.
He said they had estimated that TVK would also receive the most number of female votes after the DMK.
