Earlier this week, Newslaundry reported that out of 13 exit polls declared for the Delhi elections, 11 predicted the BJP winning the most seats. Not just that, at least 10 gave the BJP a simple majority, which is 36 or more in the 70-member assembly.

Sticking out like a sore thumb were two predictions – one by Mind Brink and the other by WeePreside. Mind Brink predicted 21-25 seats for the BJP and a whopping 44-49 to the AAP, while WeePreside gave 18-23 to the BJP and 46-52 to the AAP.

While news channels went into overdrive on which exit polls said what, we had slightly different questions. Mind Brink and WeePreside are all but unknown to the public. So are some of the other agencies, like Poll Diary and Chanakya Strategy, that predicted a landslide victory for the BJP.  

But some pollsters have little to no online presence, including not having a website at all and a tiny social media footprint. There’s also very little information on their methodology and sample size. 

So, who’s behind these polling agencies shaping public perception?

New kids on the block

We’ll start with WeePreside and Mind Brink.

WeePreside’s X account describes itself as a “young & enthusiastic startup”.  It counts Arvind Kejriwal as one of its followers. 

In a tweet, it said it surveyed over 55,000 respondents across 70 constituencies. Each interview lasted “about 1-3” minutes and the responses were “entered into an app”. 

“After collecting data from polling stations, the data was analysed for accuracy based on previous results and interpretations, as well as supervisor feedback,” it said. 

Sujit Sahu, the founder of WeePreside, told Newslaundry the company has been conducting exit polls since 2021.

“In 2022, for the first time we started doing opinion polls. Before that, we used to work for candidates,” he said. “For example, if a candidate from a political party asks us to do a survey, we then give them analysis, report and intelligence.” 

He said most clients are political and include parties like the AAP, Congress and BJP. 

There’s not much else available about WeePreside online. It joined X, then Twitter, in November 2020 and previous tweets include exit polls for the 2022 Kerala assembly elections and 2024 Haryana assembly elections. Its website is a single page that says “launching soon”.

As per WeePreside’s LinkedIn profile, the company is based in Mumbai and provides services in market research, political consulting, business analytics, research skills, strategic planning and public relations. 

Sahu said WeePreside works as a third party with other organisations like Dhruv Research, Ringside Research and Mind Brink. 

Which brings us to Mind Brink, which also predicted a comfortable victory for the AAP. Unlike WeePreside, the company doesn’t have a website or an X handle that we could find. However, Newslaundry did learn that its holding company, Mind Brink Media Pulse Private Limited, is registered in Hyderabad. The company was incorporated in 2019 with two directors, Allu Sivakrishna and Navneet Kumar. 

An industry source told this reporter that Mind Brink was previously known as ETG Research, a polling agency However, a source at ETG flatly denied this claim and said the company has no links with Mind Brink.

Some websites, little info 

Now, what about the pollsters that predicted wins for the BJP?

JVC, which predicted 39-45 seats for the BJP, is led by JVC Sreeram, who told Newslaundry his poll’s results are aired on Times Now. His X profile describes himself as a psephologist who “got LS 2019 99.66% accuracy”. His profile’s cover image features Narendra Modi and he has over 42,000 followers.

Sreeram told Newslaundry his exit poll uses “both qualitative/quantitative” methodology and the sample size is “200” per seat. We couldn’t find any further details online. 

Poll Diary has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and X. It joined X in 2017, has a blue tick, and has posted exit polls in the past, most recently for the Maharashtra assembly polls in November 2024. It has a website but it’s defunct so we couldn’t check its methodology or sample size.

P-Marq doesn’t have a website at all, from our quick search, though it has active accounts on LinkedIn and X. Its founder is Abbin Theepura whose profile says he “learned from India’s Master Strategist PK (Mr. Prashant Kishor)”. 

Chanakya Strategies doesn’t have a website. There are a couple of X handles that use its names, but it’s unclear whether these are legitimate. Similarly, we found nothing for DV Research.

We also spoke to Ravi Chand who heads People’s Pulse, which predicted 51-60 to the BJP. Its website says it’s a “group of professionals with vast experience in political and allied activity with expertise in assessing public mood on various issues” and that it conducts surveys for media groups and political parties. 

Ravi Chand says People’s Pulse doesn’t indicate sample size and methodology in its posts because news channels “only want to know the numbers”.

“We put so much effort into conducting such polls,” he said, adding that the sample size was around 23,000 and involved one-on-one interviews. “But nobody asks how we arrived.”

While exit polls are often unreliable, what is really important is results. Team Newslaundry will unpack the results of the Delhi polls tomorrow as they happen. No ads, no noise, just incisive analysis. Tune into our YouTube channel at 12.30 pm on February 8.

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