E-Paper
Cong won't move SC for exit poll ban
Congress will not approach Supreme Court to seek the prevention of publication or telecast of exit polls.
The Congress does not intend to approach the Supreme Court to seek its intervention to prevent the publication or telecast of exit polls.
The Congress is not against exit polls per se. It is against their premature telecast lest they influence the subsequent phases of the elections. But it doesn't want to move the SC as it wants to the Election Commission to take a decision on the issue. Article 324 of the Constitution gives the EC enough powers to do so, AICC spokesperson Kapil Sibal said.
The EC, he said, has the right to either frame guidelines on the issue or seek judicial intervention.
Sibal hinted that if the Congress approached the SC, the whole exercise of getting the EC to take a stand on the matter would get compromised. “We don’t want to go to court. It is a political issue and it is for the EC to decide on it,” he said and hoped the panel would discharge its constitutional responsibility. “If it does not do, it has to explain to the people,” he said.
To register their principled opposition against exit polls in the middle of elections, Congress leaders stayed away when they were being telecast on Tuesday. However, they participated in the subsequent discussions. Stressing that the exit polls should be made public only after the final phase of polling, Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said: “Nowhere in the world are exit polls publicised during elections.”
"If the exit polls don't influence the elections or affect the level playing field, then why are votes not counted after each phase?” he asked.
The AICC’s reaction came even as the exit polls predicted an improvement in the tally of the Congress and its allies in the 140 constituencies that went to polls on Tuesday. The Congress had only 38 of these seats in the dissolved House.
