Karnataka Congress files police complaint on ‘fake poll survey’

A vice-president of the state Congress committee, Professor K E Radhakrishna who heads the party’s media cell, has filed the complaint with the police commissioner naming local firm CHS Surveys and its owner Deepak Avasthi. Radhakrishna said the false survey was conducted by CHS Surveys and the results showing reduced numbers for the party was intended to hurt its prospects in the forthcoming polls.

The Congress leader claimed that though CHS Surveys has claimed that the opinion poll titled “Survey Report for the month of December 2017’’ was commissioned by state Congress president G Parameshwara, the party leader had denied it.

The survey was published as the findings of an internal survey of the Congress regarding its own poll prospects. The survey suggested the Congress will lose over 40 seats from its current strength of 123. The survey also stated that former CM and Janata Dal (Secular) president H D Kumaraswamy was the most preferred Chief Ministerial candidate.

In the current House, the BJP has 44 seats and the JD(S) 39. The survey report was a significant change from internal surveys conducted by the Congress in previous months that had suggested the party stood a chance of returning to power by winning as many as 120 seats.

Soon after the survey emerged in the public domain Sunday, G Parameshwara, who has a running battle with CM Siddaramaiah for control of party affairs, distanced himself from the survey saying he never commissioned it. “We have not commissioned any survey. I express displeasure over the highlighting of the survey report as that of the KPCC,’’ he said. The Bengaluru police have not registered an FIR and accepted the petition on Monday.