The Aam Aadmi Party has sought “clear guidelines” from the Election Commission on opinion polls. It has also asked the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) to unearth the role of political parties in manipulating such polls for monetary considerations as revealed in a recent sting operation by a television channel.
“It [the sting] reinforces the widespread belief that there is an attempt — as was in the Delhi Assembly polls last December — to manipulate the coming Lok Sabha elections. The last few weeks have seen a flurry of opinion polls with successive higher projections for a particular party,” AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal said in a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner.
Code of conductReiterating the party’s opposition to a blanket ban on opinion polls, Mr. Kejriwal said the Commission should take “concrete steps” to ensure that a code of conduct was set for the publication/telecast of opinion polls.
