New Delhi, May 23: Fresh from tasting success in calling recent Assembly elections correctly, top pollster Pradeep Gupta says his services are open to all political parties, likening his firm to a dispensary where anyone can walk in and get a check-up done to identify deficiencies.
“All I need to do is put the party through our MRI scanner,” Gupta told PTI in an interview, exuding confidence and suggesting that he has moved past the setback of overestimating the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) numbers in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
He said his agency, Axis My India, already has political clients for its research work and that all are welcome to utilise its services.
“Many allegations are made at times, but I say, my setup is like a dispensary. Whoever comes and stands before us, we run our scanner and tell them where vitamin C is low, where D is low and where E is low. If they take medicines and corrective measures accordingly, they will win,” he said.
“Anyone can come. I take the entire payment in white, through cheques. There is no problem with that,” Gupta added.
He said Axis My India now has so much work that its “problem statement” is no longer business generation but execution.
Gupta said the organisation works with several large corporates and international clients as well. Naming some of them, he referred to Unilever, Mahindra and Mahindra and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, besides international organisations working in areas, such as tuberculosis eradication.
He said socio-economic research remains an ongoing area of work for the organisation and added that it is now moving towards a major people-empowerment initiative.
Gupta said Axis My India has decided to create a “people-empowerment platform” across all of the country’s nearly 4,120 Assembly constituencies by setting up “Upay Kendras”.
He said the initiative aims to combine technology with grassroots action.
“Nowadays, everything is becoming technology-driven but along with technology, something is needed on the ground as well to convert it into outcomes,” he said.
“On all issues connected with the public, we will work through Upay with information backed by action,” Gupta said.
“Our vision is to connect and resolve the problems of all households in the country. Our mission is to actively participate and contribute every day to transform a village,” he said.
Replying to a question on whether he had ever considered becoming a political consultant in the mould of Prashant Kishor or entering politics himself, Gupta said politics is “nowhere in his DNA”.
“I feel research is different from politics. What we do is psephology, which is psychology plus sociology. We try to understand the needs of people because needs drive the decision-making for humankind,” he said.
“As far as politics is concerned, if I contest an election, even my family members may not vote for me,” Gupta added with a laugh. (PTI)
