Difficult to gauge public mood in vast country like India: JSW chairman

Billionaire Sajjan Jindal on Tuesday said it is "very difficult" to gauge public mood in a vast country like India.

"Very difficult to gauge the mood of public in a vast country like ours. This is amply clear from today's numbers!" the chairman of the JSW Group wrote on social media platform X.

"What we are witnessing today is something nobody expected and showcases how a democracy of our size functions," he added.

Industrialists seemed to be a bit more circumspect while commenting on the election results which showed the ruling BJP falling short of a clear majority and depend on partners' support to form the new government.

Harsh Goenka, chairman of RPG Enterprises, while referring to the election results pointed out that the illegal betting market had predicted the outcome better than the more sophisticated exit polls.

"Satta bazaar far more accurate than pollsters using data analytics, AI, scientific research. Moral: believe in people who put their money behind their predictions," he wrote on X.

Goenka also called out the exit poll done by the widely read Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar as "the most accurate" among such polls as a majority of them got the results wrong by a wide margin.

Edelweiss Mutual Fund's managing director and chief executive Radhika Gupta quoted former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's words, saying that the democracy continues to stand today in a country of 1.4 billion people and we should be proud.

"One of our most iconic leaders, in an iconic address reminded us that while elections come and go, what should stand is India and India's democratic process. Regardless of political views, democracy continues to stand today in a country of 1.4 billion people and we should be proud," she said in a post on X.