ElectionsIndiaTamil Nadu

Forecasting Tamil Nadu’s 234 seats.

A four-model ensemble. Twenty-five years of data. One transparent methodology, published before the count.

The wager

Publish the methodology now. Reveal the predictions on May 4 at noon IST. Compare against the result. Either the model called it, or it didn’t.

Election Commission begins counting May 4.

234
Constituencies modeled
7
Election cycles, 2009–2024
4
Independent model architectures
1,000
Monte Carlo simulations

Live now

Unsealed · May 4

The model’s call — live now.

The 4-model ensemble forecast. Confidence per constituency. The full Monte Carlo distribution. Predicted versus actual, seat-by-seat, as the count unfolds.

The thesis

Why this election is different.

Tamil Nadu 2026 is not a wave election. It is a contest of arithmetic between two close-matched alliances, fragmented by two standalone parties whose vote share is real but whose seat impact is structural — they redistribute votes more than they win them.

The model treats each of the 234 constituencies as its own micro-election: a coefficient assembled from seven cycles of historical voting, modulated by demographic structure, sitting-MLA personal vote, candidate quality, and the specific spoiler effects of TVK, NTK, AIPTMMK and AJPK.

Then those 234 micro-forecasts get aggregated four different ways — top-down, bottom-up structural, bottom-up with mood overlay, and Bayesian hierarchical — to triangulate uncertainty. Where the four models agree, confidence is high. Where they disagree, the seat is genuinely unpredictable.

Read the full methodology → How the model works