Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said he was "fascinated" by psephologist Yogendra Yadav's "revised" prediction that the BJP may not reach the majority mark of 272 in the Lok Sabha polls.
Tharoor's reaction came after Yadav, in a recent interview, had predicted that the BJP may not win above 250 seats and could fall down to 230 if the anti-incumbency factor is considered.
According to Yadav, the allies of BJP may win between 35 and 40 seats. He said if the saffron party managed just 230 seats, it would not be able to cross the majority mark of 272 even with its allies. In response, Tharoor called it "interesting times ahead".
"Fascinating: @YogendraYadav has revised his earlier estimates and now says that the BJP will definitely fall short of 272. He tells Karan Thapar that the BJP could go down to 250, but if the undercurrent is strong it could even fall further to 230. Mr. Yadav says he expects the rest of the NDA to win between 35 to 40 seats," Tharoor tweeted on Thursday.
"This means that if the BJP were to fall as low as 230 it will not be able, even with the support of the rest of the NDA, to reach the 272 majority mark. Interesting times ahead!" he said.
During the interview, Yadav predicted that the Congress could improve its 2019 performance and is likely to reach triple figures.
"Congress is much likely to do better than last time. They were 52. I would imagine something like at least 90 to 100 seats. In the other scenario of a strong undercurrent against BJP, it could up to 120 seats," Yadav said in the interview.
Earlier, Yadav, in another interview, predicted the BJP alone won't cross more than 260 seats and will find it "impossible" to surpass the 300-mark. His poll forecast also suggested that the saffron side may even fall below the 275 or even the 250-seat mark.
Yadav also predicted that Congress would win 85 to 100 seats, and its INDIA bloc members would get another 120 to 135, making the Opposition-led alliance bag 205 to 235 seats.
Earlier, political analyst Prashant Kishor, who predicted that the BJP will repeat its 2019 Lok Sabha performance but not exceed 370 seats, cited Yadav to back his previous forecast.
A video of Kishor's heated exchange with a journalist in a recent interview went viral. The political strategist was reminded about two of his poll predictions in the past that went wrong, including "the Congress’s impending electoral rout" in Himachal Pradesh in 2022.
However, Kishor stood firm on his prediction that the BJP would repeat its 2019 performance, scoring around 300 seats in the Lok Sabha polls. He took a swipe at "rattled" detractors, advising them to "stay hydrated" and "keep plenty of water handy on June 4", the day of the counting of votes.
