TV poll news analysis sends politicos studio-hopping

This time, Doordarshan literally had a monopoly on the three VIP rooms set up exclusively for it at the media centre. DD cameras were the only ones that focussed on the politicians there. Last year’s elections had all the major TV channels vying for a byte at the media centre, whether it was BBC, or Star.

The electronic media was busy trying to explain why you voted the way you did. Tele-conferencing, phone–ins with correspondents, live feeds from State capitals and key constituencies, minute–to–minute information was being given to the voters. And not just that. They came up with minute–to–minute analysis and early party projections.

A member of the electronic media gave the credit to the faster pace of information delivery. `People need to know lots more than they did ever before. We have to catch up with their needs,’ he said.

Another gave it to the increasing competition amongst the channels. If Zee News boasted of relying on `nothing but the truth’, Star flaunted its reliance on `experience’.

And if all this did not work, DD reporters surely relied on their make up and shirts they wore. DD had a green room set up at the media centre, with powder and puff, and shirts that DD provides its reporters: plain blue, white stripes and checks!

But even the electronic media could not fasten the pace of results in the Bangalore North and Bangalore South constituencies, where the voting was electronic. Barring these two constituencies, rest of the 43 constituencies in the country, where the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)were used, including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s constituency (Lucknow), L K Advani’s (Gandhinagar), South Delhi, among others, the results came in by early afternoon.

Following an Election Commission directive to the Chief Electoral Officer in Karnataka on a complaint by JD(U) and JD(S) leaders, the EC directed that every EVM be re–sealed once it displayed the result. The Bangalore South result came in only at about 9 pm, while Bangalore North result had not been declared even by 10:30 pm.

The two–day counting on Wednesday and Thursday would decide the fates of 130 politicians contesting the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the State, and 1,345 candidates for 224 Assembly constituencies in Karnataka. This means 1,121 candidates will return home disappointed.