Did Delhi media miss the Modi wave?

Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai cut a smug picture early today as he referenced his Hindustan Times’ article on live TV on India Today. About five days ago, Sardesai had called the Uttar Pradesh elections in this piece, stating that the Bharatiya Janata Party would win in the state. Sardesai did stick his neck out by stating that the BJP is poised for a “likely victory”. But the prediction seems tame in hindsight given that the BJP is set for a landslide win. The party is set to cross the 300 mark, with a voteshare of 39 per cent (till 16:12pm) – higher even than the Rath Yatra days. The victory is nothing short of a saffron wave, or as CNN Network18’s hashtag states, a #TsuNaMo. But there are questions being asked of the media now, especially the Delhi media, on why most reportage in the run-up to the Assembly elections missed the NaMo wave.

While it’s always easy to pronounce judgments retrospectively, the one thing certain with these election results is that exit polls are here to stay. Nearly, every exit poll on Uttar Pradesh had predicted a landslide victory for BJP in Uttar Pradesh, which means they aren’t going anywhere from our election news anytime soon. Meanwhile, it appears, the astrologer and parrot who appeared on the India Today Group’s TV channels also got it right in predicting a BJP win in UP. Long live election tamasha.