Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh on Monday called for a ban on exit polls, alleging that the projections released by pollsters are an attempt to influence the Lok Sabha election results.
The leader made the allegations a day after his party’s national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal questioned the veracity of the exit polls, saying fake numbers were released to manipulate the stock market to benefit those heavily invested there and pressurise poll officers into believing that the BJP is coming to power.
Mr. Singh alleged that the agencies which conducted the post-poll surveys showing a thumping victory for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) did so under pressure from the ruling party at the Centre.
“However, I am extremely grateful to the exit poll agencies for exposing themselves in front of the nation. I believe there must have been immense pressure on them to change the exit poll numbers,” Mr. Singh told reporters.
“This is an attempt to influence the people of the country, the administrative system and the Election Commission ahead of counting for votes,” he added.
The leader alleged discrepancies in the figures released by pollsters for several States, saying one of the exit polls gave two to three seats in Jharkhand to the CPI (M), which is not contesting the election there.
“In Tamil Nadu, the Congress is contesting on nine seats but the pollsters gave them 15 seats. In Uttarakhand, the total number of seats is five but the BJP was shown winning on six by a pollster,” the AAP leader alleged.
