The National Democratic Alliance’s thumping victory in the recently held Bihar assembly elections sprung up a lot of surprises for those who were hoping for an RJD return. As NDA emerged victorious in Bihar, especially after almost every exit poll had predicted victory for Mahagathbandhan, the left-liberals, who had hoped for a victory of RJD-Congress-Communist alliance were perturbed.
With almost every of their so-called ‘analysis’ turning out to be exactly opposite to the prevailing reality, many of them tried to undo the damage.
Leftist ‘news’ website The Wire, which was hoping for a Mahagathbandhan victory, had to face a ‘foot-in-the-mouth’ moment recently after their analysis and predictions went wrong in Bihar elections.
In one of its videos published just after exit polls predicted a landslide win for the RJD-Congress coalition, the exuberant ‘editors’ of the Wire analysed the Bihar elections to claim that Prime Minister Modi was responsible for NDA’s ‘loss’ in Bihar. Claiming there was no Modi wave in the state, the Wire said that PM Modi should be held responsible for the Nitish Kumar’s loss as he failed to impress voters of the state.
Responding to anchor Arfa Khanum’s Sherwani’s questions asking whether PM Modi was a factor in Bihar elections and the presumed NDA’s loss in Bihar should be pinned on PM Modi, Ajay Ashirwad, Deputy Editor at the Wire, agreed that the ‘loss’ in Bihar elections was solely the responsibility of Prime Minister Modi.
Ashirwad, relying on the exit polls published a day before, said that the Modi rallies were a ‘flop’ as it failed to impress voters of Bihar. The Wire Editor said that most of the rallies held by Prime Minister Modi attracted paltry crowds implying that the loss in Bihar elections was a direct result of such flop rallies. At one point, Ashirwad says that PM Modi could not even get 5,000 people to attend his rallies.
According to Ashirwad, Prime Minister Modi, who was the prime campaigning asset of the BJP, could not convince the voters of Bihar to vote for the NDA coalition and hence he was responsible for the loss.
The Wire takes a U-turn after Bihar election results
The Wire, which was making tall assertions about NDA’s ‘loss’ in the Bihar elections based on the data of exit polls, perhaps were shocked to accept the victory of the BJP-JDU alliance in the state two days after they had predicted a victory to the alliance of the opposition.
Following the NDA’s thumping victory in Bihar elections, the Wire did another show to analyse the election results. Ajay Ashirwad, the Deputy Editor at the Wire, who claimed to have ‘extensively’ covered the Bihar elections was also part of the show. It must be remembered that it was Ajay Ashirwad who had only 48 hours before this video, said that PM Modi could not even gather 5,000 voters during his elections rallies.
Just two days after Ashirwad had predicted ‘Mahagathbandhan’ victory in Bihar, the opposite had happened in the state elections. After claiming to have covered Bihar extensively and asserting that PM Modi’s rallies were a flop, the Wire Deputy Editor did a U-turn by claiming that people of Bihar had a lot of admiration for PM Modi.
Contrary to what he had said just two days earlier, Ashriwad in the show said that there was an anti-incumbency against Nitish Kumar and not against Prime Minister Modi. Ashirwad said that people of Bihar had a positive opinion on Prime Minister Modi and were very much appreciative of Modi government’s developmental programmes.
The faux analysis by The Wire’s deputy editor only goes to show that most of the analysis during Bihar was more on the lines of wishful thinking than actual data. The Left, of which The Wire is an integral part, was essentially hoping for a Mahagathbandhan victory and all their ‘extensive coverage’ was an expression of what they hoped would happen in Bihar. However, the brazenness with which The Wire simply discards its own analysis when the results don’t suit their decided narrative is certainly hilarious.
