"BJP and NDA’s seat share is lower-than-expected. There is only one state that has gone completely off the charts in our data: Uttar Pradesh. And that has pulled down the BJP’s own tally as well and this is the reason they are unable to touch the majority mark on their own at this point of time.

“BJP’s two allies have become extremely important now - Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar - now that BJP might not get its own majority.”

“I think there was a lot of economic issues. The BJP has performed badly in rural areas. There was lot of defection and manoeuvring that happened in Maharashtra that boomeranged. Too much reliance on Modi did not work.”

“This trend shows Modi can be beaten and regional party has come as a big force.”