Don't ban opinion polls, regulate them: Yogendra Yadav tells EC

Aam Aadmi Party leader Yogendra Yadav has said that all opinion polls conducted in the country should be regulated by the Election Commission and the raw data for the polls should be made available to experts.

His comments follow a sting operation by a news channel that has revealed some of the agencies which conduct opinion polls before elections are willing to tweak their findings for money.

“We want opinion polls to be regulated. Companies conducting opinion polls should make details of the opinion poll public,” said Yogendra Yadav during a press conference today.

Yadav said, “Entire raw data for the polls should be made available to experts.”

Yadav, however, was of the opinion that such polls should not be banned. “We demand that the Election Commission regulate opinion polls instead of banning them.”

Meanwhile, Arvind Kejriwal pointed out, “None of the major news channels covered the sting. Even in newspapers the story found place only on page six. I request my friends from the media to give more coverage to this news for the benefit of the public.”

AAP was also of the opinion that media companies should be regulated because the self-regulation process was not working. “The media is treated as a holy cow, they speak about self-regulation but in the name of self-regulation nothing happens,” said Prashant Bhushan.

At a press conference, the channel, News Express, claimed its sting operation had “exposed” 11 agencies which conducted opinion polls. Vinod Kapri, editor-in-chief of the channel, said it was showing the sting in order to make voters aware and added that it would also provide details to the Election Commission.