New Delhi: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) appealed to the Election Commission to ban pre-poll surveys by media outlets at least six months before state and general elections, to ensure that voters exercise their rights freely, fairly, and uninfluenced by the ‘misleading projections’ which are ‘sponsored surveys’. The party has invoked the jurisdiction of the Election Commission to issue guidelines to ensure free and fair polls, ahead of the Uttar Pradesh polls scheduled early next year.
The party said that it was ‘surprised’ with the pre-poll survey broadcast by a news outlet in September. It also claimed that the survey tried to lower the morale of BSP workers, while showing the ruling party in a very good light. According to the report, BJP was shown to be getting more than 40% of the vote share which is going to be even higher than its vote share in 2017.
‘The alleged survey was shown with the mischievous and predetermined intention to mislead the voters in Uttar Pradesh. The prediction based on interviews of few thousand people, against 15 crore voters of UP is totally baseless’, the letter alleged. The letter further said that the agency which conducted the survey for the channel was earlier caught in a sting operation.
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The party leaders said that while many had predicted BJP would win the state, the actual result stunned all. ‘Different agencies have predicted extremely different data of pre-poll and exit polls, which allegedly form their opinions on the basis of surveys of voters of the very same state and for the same elections, and the actual results show totally different results,’ the party said. The BSP in the 11-page letter has also cited exit poll and opinion poll results broadcast by various national news channels ahead of the 2021 Bengal Assembly elections.
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