In an intriguing political development, the Samajwadi Party, on Sunday, urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to impose a ban on opinion polls being aired by news channels.
The Samajwadi Party urged the ECI to immediately impose a ban on opinion polls being aired by news channels. This demand has come after several opinion polls reportedly projected a majority for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance in the UP elections.
SP state president Naresh Uttam shot off a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra, arguing that the airing of opinion polls at a juncture when the nomination for the first phase had already finished was a violation of the model code of conduct.
Maintaining that the voters were getting influenced by the findings of these surveys, he contended that the prohibition of opinion polls was a prerequisite for free and fair elections.
As per Section 126A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, exit polls cannot be aired from the hour fixed for commencement of poll in the first phase and half an hour after the end of polling in the last phase.
The ECI’s formal response to the SP letter is awaited.
A survey conducted by one TV channel projected that the BJP-led alliance shall win 252-272 seats whereas the alliance led by the Akhilesh Yadav-led party might end up with 111-131 seats. On the other hand, Bahujan Samaj Party, Congress and other parties are likely to get 8-16, 3-9 and 0-4 seats respectively. As per the opinion poll, the BJP-led alliance is expected to garner a vote share of 41.3 per cent as against 33.1 per cent of the SP.
Besides, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was the first choice for the top post for 41.2 per cent of the respondents, while 29.4 per cent of the respondents were in favour of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. As far as election issues are concerned, unemployment and farmers' protest topped the list followed by increase in prices of fuel and essential commodities, lack of widespread availability of water, bad roads and the issue of stray cattle.
Rating the UP government's performance, 18 per cent of the respondents termed it 'excellent', 38 per cent 'good', 25 per cent 'average' and 19 per cent 'poor'.