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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, March 1: The Congress party today alleged that the exit poll survey nationally telecast over Doordarshan was quot;biased, highly objectionable, and politically motivatedquot;.
Party spokesperson Najma Heptullah said that she had written to Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy her party8217;s objections to such a survey being telecast.
quot;Perhaps the intention was to prepare the ground for horse-trading in the days to come and I object to it,quot; she said. The Congress spokesperson said she would have understood if the survey were to be based on political understanding and calculations.
quot;We are not ready to accept this survey as authentic because the credibility of the person doing this job was in doubt and he was not a sociologist but an agricultural scientist,quot; she said.
The exit poll survey was apparently leaked to Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Pramod Mahajan, Shiv Sena candidate from Mumbai a day in advance, she alleged.
Doordarshan, an official media, should not have allowedsuch an exit poll telecast for the entire evening. She said a sample size of 25,000 people could hardly represent the moods of millions. She said it would have been fair if DD had also shown quot;the other survey conducted by a professional organisationquot; meaning TVI8217;s poll which showed Congress more favourably unlike the one they had shown. DD8217;s was not an exit poll but an opinion poll, Heptullah alleged.
Heptullah said she had taken objection to the exit poll survey at the DD studios itself on Saturday night for including the tally of allied parties along with the BJP when they had shown only the Congress party8217;s tally individually.
If the allies were contesting on their own they should be shown separately instead of being clubbed with the BJP, she said.
She said there could be no exact exit poll survey for India because the voting would be on so many considerations like region, religion, caste besides political issues.
Asked what would be the party8217;s reaction if the verdict turned out similar to thepoll survey, Heptullah said only time would tell.
