KK Surveys and Strategies — a polling agency owned by prominent psephologist Kiran Kondeti – which shot to fame with his near-accurate predictions in the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections in 2019 and 2024, has failed to repeat its magic.
Its projections for the Jubilee Hills by-election once again failed to align with ground reality. The agency, which had twice declared the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) as the clear frontrunner, is now facing political pushback and questions over its credibility.
In its exit poll released on the eve of polling, KK Surveys claimed that BRS was comfortably ahead with 49% vote share, placing the Congress at 41% and the BJP at 8%.
The agency said the BRS lead stemmed from “public trust in the party’s governance” and the “strong local connect” of its candidate Maganti Sunitha.
Its pre-poll survey conducted before the electioneering began projected an even wider margin: 55.2% for BRS, 37.8% for Congress, and 7% for the BJP, placing the BRS candidate in an unassailable position.
However, as counting of votes progressed on Friday, it was evident that KK Surveys has miserably failed to read the people’s pulse and has given rise to the suspicion that it was hired by the BRS to project wrong figures to mislead the voters.
In fact, the release of the KK pre-poll survey during the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) period sparked outrage within the Congress.
MLCs Balmuri Venkat and Addanki Dayakar lodged a complaint with the Election Commission, alleging that the survey violated election rules.
KK Surveys’ sudden rise to prominence followed its strikingly accurate prediction of the TDP-JSP-BJP alliance sweeping 160+ seats in the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections — an estimate that skeptics initially dismissed but which came close to the actual tally of 164 out of 175 seats.
However, the agency’s credibility took a hit soon after. Its exit poll for the Haryana assembly elections in October 2024 went “completely haywire,” predicting a massive setback for the BJP — stating the party would lose two out of every three seats it contested.
Contrary to this, the BJP won comfortably and formed the government for a third consecutive term.
Now, the Jubilee Hills bypoll has once again placed KK Surveys under an uncomfortable spotlight, raising serious questions about its methods, motivations and consistency.
