Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja on Sunday said that the Election Commission (EC) should convene a meeting of all political parties to discuss the issue of opinion polls.
“The question of ban on opinion polls needs to be further discussed. Election Commission cannot take a decision like this. It should convene a meeting of all political parties and discuss these issues on the basis on consensus before taking the decision,” he said. “The poll surveys are done by several media organizations and individual groups. We do not know how they are sponsored. In such situations, the poll surveys are being doubted for their neutrality and objectivity,” he added.
He further said that Congress has expressed support to the Election Commission on this because opinion polls have been projecting poor show of the ruling party in some states. “Congress has every reason to worry about the recent poll surveys because the opinion polls show that Congress is declining. So Congress Party has reasons to worry and take up this issue with the Election Commission,” he said.
The Congress Party has written to the Election Commission (EC) to restrict opinion polls ahead of the elections. The legal department of the Congress Party stated that opinion polls can be misused, and they are not scientific or credible. The Congress, however, shifted from its earlier stand, where it dismissed the proposal of the Election Commission to ban opinion polls.
