Why Election Commission (EC) is so keen to ban opinion poll ? Is it because the methodology used is wrong or unscientific or it is biased or the results shown are not suitable to one group ? If the methodology is wrong or the agencies doing this are biased, then it is an allegation on the professional eternity that works on all kinds of such surveys, that include economic rating agencies like Crisil in India, Moody,Standard & Poors and so many internationally ?
The EC has communicated to the law ministry,that a total of 15 political parties, including five national and 10 regional parties, responded to its proposal on opinion polls and a majority of them supported the ban. “Five national parties and 10 state parties have submitted their views on the matter,” .The law ministry had asked the EC to hold fresh consultations with parties on the issue and then give its views.
While forwarding the response of the parties, the poll panel noted that it had previously held consultations with parties on the issue on 6 April, 2004. “The political parties were then (2004) of the unanimous view that publishing the results of opinion poll should be prohibited from the date of notification of election, and now after nine years the EC wrote to various parties seeking their views afresh on opinion polls.
The views expressed by various parties on the issue of opinion poll reveals that barring Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), almost all parties have sought a ban or restriction of some kind on dissemination of result of opinion poll ahead of elections.
INDIA HONEST wonders, why after a decade of Congress's own rule, they have become so impatient to ban the opinion poll on the corner of election, so urgently. What the opinion poll will predict, is already written on the wall. Is Congress and its allies are worried now after ten years, that this should have been done earlier ? Never worry, lot of work expected by the people , while giving repeat mandate to them, has not even started in last nine and half years,so better put this one also in that "work not done" pending work basket.