Congress seeks ban on opinion polls

Top Congress leaders on Monday, came out in support of the Election Commission (EC)'s proposal to ban opinion polls, saying these influenced voters ahead of elections. "These have become a farce. They should be banned. The kind of complaints, information that I have got, show that anybody can pay and get a survey as desired. In a country of 1.2 billion people, how can a few thousand people predict the trend. It has become a racket. So many groups have sprung up," said Congress leader, Digvijaya Singh.

Union minister Rajiv Shukla also called for a ban on such polls, as a "neutral mind(set)" of the public was required before elections.

"If there are genuine opinion polls, nobody minds it. But now, the kind of reports that we are getting indicates there are also manipulated opinion polls. Everybody is coming out with an opinion poll. Every Tom, Dick and Harry is coming out with an opinion poll," said Shukla.

"Obviously, when the media gives publicity, people definitely get carried away. So, it has been the right demand of the party. There has to be a neutral state of mind before the elections," Shukla said.

The Congress, of late, has been clearly flustered with a spate of opinion polls that have predicted a downslide for the party in states, especially in Delhi, that are heading for polls.

Reacting to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s survey in October-end, which predicted huge gains for the newbie party, Congress spokesperson Sandeep Dikshit had said, "These surveys mould public opinion. How can internal surveys of parties be made public?"

The AAP, in its survey, claimed it would bag 33 seats in the 70-member Assembly. The AAP was projected to get a vote share of 32 per cent, followed by the Congress with 28 per cent and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with 24 per cent.

The BJP on Monday though, lashed out at the Congress for opposing pre-poll surveys as most had predicted electoral losses for the Congress.

Opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, in a written article on Monday, said: "A ban on such (opinion) polls cannot be considered based on who is demanding the ban. Clearly, (opinion) polls are also a part of free speech. Restricting them is constitutionally neither permissible nor desirable. If opinion polls can be legitimately banned in this country, the next step would be to ban political commentators from giving assessments favourable to some and adverse to some others. A potential loser in an election cannot seek to alter the rules of free speech."

Earlier, the EC had in its letter to all political parties asked them for their views on a ban on opinion polls. The All India Congress Committee's Legal Department head, in his reply on October 30, had stated that it "fully endorses the views of (the Election Commission) to restrict publication and dissemination of opinion polls during election (time). In fact, opinion polls during elections are neither scientific, nor is there any transparent process for such surveys," K C Mittal said in the party's official response.