NDTV: Viral opinion poll showing Cong win in Telangana fake; no survey done

An opinion poll for Telangana in which Congress is miles ahead of the incumbent Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is viral on social media. The figures are ascribed to a ‘poll of polls’ survey by NDTV. Telangana is going to the polls on November 30.

Sharing the numbers, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate tweeted, “NDTV Poll of Polls confirms what we are seeing on the ground in Telangana.”. According to the poll, Congress is winning 68-76 seats, while BJP, BRS, AIMIM and IND are slated to get 3-5 seats, 30-35 seats, 5-7 seats and 2-4 seats, respectively. (Archive)

NDTV Poll of Polls confirms what we are seeing on the ground in Telangana.@INCIndia is all set to record a historic win!

𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐬

◆INC: 68-76
◆BJP: 3-5
◆BRS: 30-35
◆AIMIM: 5-7
◆IND : 2-4

Total Seats: 119
Majority: 60#Congress75inTelangana

— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) November 27, 2023

The official Twitter handle of Maharashtra Congress Sevadal tweeted a graphic containing the same numbers as Supriya Shrinate. The graphic contains the texts “NDTV” and “#ElectionsWithNDTV”. (Archive)

BREAKING NOW – NDTV Poll of Polls gives Majority to Congress in TELANGANA

Most Opinion Polls are predicting that in Telangana, BRS is staring at their biggest defeat due to huge anti-incumbency against KCR govt.

Today, the NDTV Poll of Polls Tracker#Congress75inTelangana
1/7 pic.twitter.com/NkOkaDjlpr

— Maharashtra Congress Sevadal (@SevadalMH) November 27, 2023

The official spokesperson for the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee, Sama Ram Mohan Reddy, also tweeted the graphic. He later deleted his tweet. (Archive)

Several other users amplified the graphic and the subsequent claim that an opinion poll by NDTV had predicted a landslide victory for Congress in the Telangana elections. (Archives- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

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Fact Check

The graphic has been dubbed “fake” by NDTV. “NDTV has not carried any poll of polls for #Telangana2023. Please don’t spread fake news”, the channel said in a statement.

#FakeNewsAlert | NDTV has not carried any poll of polls for #Telangana2023. Please don’t spread fake news.

For fastest and most accurate election results, do log on to https://t.co/Fbzw6n9j4d on Sunday pic.twitter.com/7ehK3ysdeQ

— NDTV (@ndtv) November 28, 2023

We could find three of the seven polls listed by the graphic out of which, Lok Poll and The South First, were cited correctly in the viral graphic. Two polling agencies mentioned in the graphic, the ‘BRS Internal Survey’ and the ‘State Intelligence Bureau’, are not recognized entities commonly cited by reputable news organizations. Additionally, it is uncommon for political parties to divulge internal survey data, especially if they are lagging.

Below are screenshots of Lok Poll’s predictions and South First–Peoples Pulse’s Pre-poll Survey. These have been cited correctly in the viral claims.

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In a later tweet, however, Lok Poll revised their predictions with BRS winning 33 – 35 seats, INC 72 – 74 seats, AIMIM 5 – 7 seats and the BJP 2 – 4 seats.

However, the ABP-CVoter Opinion Poll dated November 4 predicted a win for Bharat Rashtra Samithi. It gave 49-61 seats to the KCR-led party while giving 43-55 seats to Congress. According to their survey, the BJP was likely to win around 14.3% of the votes. The projected seat range for BJP was 5-11. So, these figures have been incorrectly out in the graphic.

We could not find any opinion poll figures released by ‘Talangana OU JAC’ and ‘Pulse of Telangana’.

To sum up, the NDTV ‘poll of polls’ figures shared by several prominent X handles linked to Congress, which predict a landslide victory for Congress in Telangana, are not genuine. NDTV has refuted the viral claims stating that they did not carry out opinion polls for the Telangana elections.