The opinion polls conducted in an "unscientific" method are aimed at influencing and "cheating" people, CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechuri on Friday said.
"Such exercises are meant to influence the people before they cast their franchise. It is a kind of cheating but the people will not be swayed by such opinion or exit polls. They have already decided whom to vote," he told reporters in Ranchi.
Yechuri said the opinion polls were being conducted in an "unscientific method" which resulted in wide variations in their results.
Giving an example, he said the pollsters began by giving as many as 360 seats to the NDA only to gradually climb down to 260 now.
''The wide variation happened just because the opinion polls are not being carried out scientifically,'' he said.