Exclusive | ‘We don’t believe in exit poll predictions, they’re not accurate’: Sitaram Yechury

“Even in exit polls in advanced countries, like we saw in Australia yesterday, the actual result was completely opposite to what they had predicted,” Sitaram Yechury said.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury spoke to Saubhadra Chatterji about exit polls giving the edge to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, the prospects of the Left parties, and the role of the Election Commission (EC) in the 2019 elections. Edited excerpts:

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury spoke to Saubhadra Chatterji about exit polls giving the edge to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, the prospects of the Left parties, and the role of the Election Commission (EC) in the 2019 elections.(Subhankar Chakraborty/Hindustan Times)

What is your take on the exit polls?

We don’t believe in exit polls; they have nowhere come out to be accurate. Even in exit polls in advanced countries, like we saw in Australia yesterday, the actual result was completely opposite to what they had predicted. I don’t take exit polls seriously. I also would like to remind this generation about an RK Laxman cartoon. It depicted after the first exit poll of India - husband tells wife that he has stamped the wrong ballot. When his wife is about to scold him, he says, ‘don’t worry I have corrected myself in the exit poll.’ This is the Indian reality.

It looks like an existential crisis for the Left, at least electorally. Are you hopeful of a revival?

Between 2004 and 2014, the Left’s numbers came down to a historic low. This year, our sole target was to increase our numbers. Let’s see how we have fared on May 23. But in West Bengal particularly, in at least six constituencies, there was large-scale violence, large-scale rigging and our voters were prevented from casting their votes. And the crucial thing that I had been saying is that if our vote is allowed to be polled, it would make a big difference. But they were not allowed to be polled by the BJP in Tripura and the Trinamool in West Bengal.

But there was a huge deployment of security forces in West Bengal by the EC.

Deployment is not sufficient. They must be given proper duties. If the law and order is maintained by the state police then what is the role of the central forces?

How do you assess the role of EC in this poll?

We are very disappointed with the role of the Election Commission. I myself have written a number of complaints to the poll body and I continue to maintain that those were blatant violations of the poll code. But as some people such as the PM and the Bharatiya Janata Party chief were let off by EC, it has raised a lot of questions on the fairness of the commission. This is very ominous for Indian democracy. The way the election commissioners differed among themselves is very strange.

Here is a look at numbers: