Shying away of taking a call to ban the opinion polls, the Centre has sent the contentious file back to the Election Commission with an instruction to hold fresh round of consultations with the political parties.
Highly-placed sources said that Union law Minister Kapil Sibal had returned the file seeking a ban on the opinion polls as sought by the Election Commission. Interestingly, the Commission got support from the Attorney General who did not see any objection with the EC proposal.
The law Ministry had sought the AG’s opinion on the issue and the Attorney General had supported the Commission’s proposal to ban publication and broadcast of opinion polls between the announcement of election schedule and the final phase of polling. At present, there is a ban on opinion polls starting from 48 hours before voting.
However, Sibal sent the file back to EC asking it to consult the parties again and seek their views afresh on the issue. Sibal had earlier said “no Government should ban opinion polls without consulting political parties”.
The EC had sought a ban on the publication and broadcast of the results of opinion polls starting from the date of notification of elections till the completion of the last phase of polls to lok Sabha and State Assemblies.
The ban was sought on the lines of the one in place for exit polls, which cannot be published or broadcasted till the last phase of polling is over.
The EC had sought the views of various political parties in 2004 when they unanimously sought a ban on opinion polls and the poll body based its proposal on these consultations.
After the law Ministry’s suggestion, EC will again convene a meeting with representatives of various political parties shortly for holding consultations on the issue.