Focusing on BJP, got us our Gujarat Election 2017 predictions right: Sujit Nair

HW News was the only news network to have predicted 95 to 105 seats for BJP and 75 to 80 seats for Congress almost 2 months before the Gujarat elections.

Sujit Nair, Managing Editor says the brief to the research team was to talk to all stakeholders in Gujarat, the farmers, small traders, business communities, patidaars, hindus, OBCs, dalits and muslims across Gujarat to figure out why they will vote for or against BJP.

This would give us the understanding of deep rooted resentments against the BJP or the verdict in its support. We set forth on this exercise with the premise that the general populace will be voting for or against BJP.

The observations from the extensive research and people interactions gave expression to the critical ground realities. The analytics leading from this helped us draw near precise conclusions on the way the communities will be voting on the D-Day.

"Armed with this insight, we went on to draw the general mood of the Gujarat electorate and highlighted how the agrarian crisis, disappointment amongst trade and business community could put the ruling dispensation on notice," said Sujit Nair.

"While there were strong anti BJP sentiments amongst certain sections of the society, there were also sections that were hard-core pro-BJP," he added.

HW convincingly stated that Hardik Patel, the agitating paatidars and dalits will lend their support in favor of Congress rather than aligning with the BJP. It was proved right.

The drastically different views expressed by Sujit Nair and HW News were received with mixed reactions.

While Sujit was trolled bigtime, it also generated vast viewership and helped HW News Network to emerge as the most trusted digital news channel on Gujarat Elections.

HW News Network garnered an astonishing 8.61 million viewership for the Gujarat Elections and was the only news network that got its predictions bang on.