Admitting his failure to make the right predictions in both the Assembly elections in Telangana and General elections in Andhra Pradesh, the former Congress MP on Friday said that he would henceforth abstain from conducting exit polls.
The former Congress leader, who is not in active politics anymore, through a press release said, "I have failed to know the pulse of the people in December 2018 Assembly elections in Telangana and 2019 General elections in Andhra Pradesh, for which I express regret. For whatever reasons, since I failed to know the pulse of the people, I would henceforth abstain from conducting exit polls in the future."
Lagadapati Rajagopal took political exile in 2014, after Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated to carve out Telangana.
After being inactive in politics, the former leader made an appearance during the Telangana Assembly elections and said that his poll agency predicted a win for Congress alliance with 65 seats out of the 119 seats.
However, in complete contrast to his predictions, the TRS won with a huge mandate of 88 seats. TRS working president KT Rama Rao and Lagadapati had a spat also regarding his exit poll results, and eventually KTR was vindicated.
Again on Sunday, Lagadapati disclosed his exit poll results, in which he claimed that the TRS will win at least 16 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, and TDP would be re-elected by winning 90-100 Assembly seats. However, the TDP saw a rout, as the YSRCP won with a huge majority of 151 seats.
Responding to allegations that he deliberately gave the numbers wrong to hamper the prospects of certain parties, he said, “Following certain principles, I took a political exile, since then I am not associated with any party.”
In 2014, Lagadapati took a vow that he will quit politics if the Congress went ahead with bifurcation.
He further added, "If someone is hurt by my surveys, please forgive me. I congratulate YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for becoming the Chief Minister and Chandrababu Naidu for taking the role of Leader of Opposition."