Amid a flurry of exit polls predicting the outcome of Assembly elections ahead of the March 6 results, Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi oon Sunday said such surveys should at best be on entertainment channels.
“Opinion and exit polls should at best be on entertainment channels!,” Mr. Quraishi tweeted this afternoon, taking a dig at the surveys.
The reaction of the CEC, who made his Twitter debut on February 29, came as television channels were busy predicting government formations and possible political fallouts of the current assembly elections in the five states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur since the exercise ended on Saturday.
The Election Commission had banned exit polls till March 3, till the completion of Assembly elections in the five States.
Mr. Quraishi brushed aside criticism of the poll body on the notices and action taken against some ministers during the high voltage campaign, saying it was part of the game and the Election Commission has taken it in its stride.
He, however, expressed anguish at people accusing the EC of “bias.” It hurts when people accuse me of bias,” he said here on Sunday.
The CEC had earlier refused to comment on speculation about election results and possible political alliances, saying, “When elections end, politics starts… Our job is to conduct free and fair polls. And, we have done our job pretty well,” he said.
Keywords: exit polls, assembly polls, election commission, S.Y. Quraishi
See , exit polls have proved correct. It predicted a Mulayam win in major seats in U.P. The same thing happened in reality. So let us not shout down exit polls. After all they are scientific.
Good Debut for Mr. Quraishi on Twitter; the aspirant for President of India.
After all, he has to establish himself as a viable candidate for Presidency to ensure that the Congress saga continues without any serious challenge! so that their bounty is protected from the reach of any party.
good idea and very true also. Exit polls could be there only till the
results are announced. But unfortunately the slots in all the entertainment channels are booked for another 10 yrs by the speeches of politicians belonging to all the political parties before and after the actual poll results.
Mr.Quraishi said Opinion and exit polls should at best be on entertainment channels. What a funny comment. If it is really so why he had banned opinion polls and exit polls. Is it not cotradictory.
Hearty congratulations to the Election Commission for having successfully conducted
the elections in five States - not a mean achievement. I entirely agree with the views
expressed by the Chief Election Commissioner that the Opinion Poll should be
treated as an entertainment. By now it is a well-known fact that its forecasts are
generally at variance with the actual results announced after the elections and,
needless to say, it is a futile exercise which one could easily dispense with and thus
save a lot of one's precious time.
I agree with CEC.Exit polls are full of fun ..:-) debate on unrealistic outcome.
Of course it not only an entertainment of hours it is entertainment of days. What assumption/presumption by media,Politicians Media to improve the TRP to make money and make the channel Live for 24x7. Before born a baby , everything (from deciding gender,name,grooming , marriage, family and death) is decided/assumed. For entertain the audience parties are also deputing their expert spokes person .Finally after so much waste of time /money nothing happening as discussed. This is India. So it should be banned fully.
Dear Quraishi, absolutely correct, you have understood well the media and it's exit polls! People proved the exit poll wrong but, it has become a ritual for shameless people in media!!
I am not commenting the action of Election Commission is bias or not But I certainly exprss my sorry for his helplessness in case of the statement of Salman Khurshid, Sri Prakash Jaiswal, Beniprasad verma. If he has no power, why he is intitiating action against these white elephants enjoying absolute power at Delhi and putting the institution in a critical situation. This only puts the Election Commission in a shameful place in the public eye. People are comparing the strongman Shesan, ex Chief Election Commissioner and present Election Commission.
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