After the implementation of the election code of conduct, a letter has been written to the Chief Election Commissioner for a ban on opinion polls. The Supreme Court advocate ILIN SARASWAT has written an email to the Chief Election Commissioner asking that opinion polls should be banned to ensure free and fair elections.
The letter said that it has become a trend these days that political party sponsored opinion polls have been started. Opinion polls are being shown on the channels even after the election code of conduct is implemented and the election dates are announced and due to this the voters are getting badly affected.
It was further mentioned that under the constitution, Voters have the right to vote without being influenced and there should be free and fair elections, but the rights of the voters are being attacked. It has also been said in the letter whatever the opinion poll is, there is no evidence of its survey. No, and there is no accountability. For this, there is no account of sponsor and survey expenses.
All this is being done by the channels to claim to be number one in TRP and Mumbai police sometime back also exposed the TRP scam in which some channels were involved.
All this is against the principle of free and fair elections under Article 324 of the Constitution. In such a situation, after the announcement of elections and the implementation of the code of conduct, opinion polls should be strictly banned. Opinion polls should be banned till voting is done on the last day. Also, opinion polls, exit polls and election surveys should be brought under the purview of RTI and transparency should be ensured to fix accountability.
