New Delhi:
Congress leaders on Monday termed opinion poll as ‘racket’, ‘farce’ and ‘manipulated’ exercise. They said this should be banned as it gives a wrong perception in the mind of voter.
They also slammed BJP’s statement which said Congress is opposing opinion poll because they are scared of BJP.
The public response to ban opinion poll came days after AICC wrote to the Election Commission for putting a restriction over publication of such polls.
"...These have become a farce. They should be banned altogether. 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," party general secretary Digvijay Singh said.
Union Minister Rajiv Shukla also termed opinion polls as a manipulated affair and supported his party in opposing it.
"If there are genuine opinion polls, nobody minds but now the kind of reports that we are getting is that 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.
"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 mind before polls," Shukla said.
He also mentioned that Congress has always opposed the opinion poll in the past.
(with PTI inputs)
