While announcing the dates of Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections, the Election Commission has made a sharp comment on the media. Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar questioned the trends shown in the exit polls and media since morning on the day of counting. He said that all this is not right and something needs to be done about it. The Election Commissioner raised questions over showing the election trends from 8 am on the day of the results.
He said, ‘When the counting time starts, results start coming from 8.05 pm and 8.10 pm which is nonsense. My first counting starts at 8.30. We have proof this time that at 8.05, 8.10, 8.15, this much lead, this much lead, this much lead started coming. It is not so, we are just asking, those trends came in the beginning to justify the exit poll. That we had said so, the same trend is happening. Whatever happens later, will happen.
The Election Commissioner said, ‘The first result, of one round, cannot come before 8.30 when the counting starts, 10 minutes to 9, 5 minutes to 9. Even if it takes 30 minutes, one round can’t be done. We put it on the website at 9.30. Then put it at 11.30. Then let’s put it at 1.30. It is possible that your correspondent will be present there, so let us know beforehand. The result has to be shown on the screen. Agent’s signature has to be taken. But how come before 9 o’clock. The lead shown till 8.45 pm creates expectations and when the actual result comes, there is a mismatch. This can sometimes cause serious problems.
Apart from this, on exit polls, Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that this time also we have seen and it has happened many times that exit polls tell something and the result is different from that. Therefore, it is worth thinking about what is the method of conducting exit polls and what is their sample size. It’s all a matter of thinking. Not only this, during this time he also often questioned the trends shown by TV channels and other media since morning on the day of election results.
Election Commissioner told the media by giving the example of Haryana
He said that if we talk about this time itself, the trends in the assembly elections of Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir started coming in from the morning itself. It was said that the trend for the first round had arrived by 8:30. This was completely wrong. The truth is that we ourselves give information about the first round of counting at 9:30 and it is uploaded on the site. In such a situation, how can it be said an hour in advance who is ahead and who is behind in the first round?
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‘The media acts hurriedly and then questions arise’
The Election Commissioner said that the media is hasty in showing the trends. Many times there is arbitrariness in doing this and due to this, when the actual trends of the Election Commission come, a difference is seen. When there is a difference between the trends of the media and the Commission, the parties left behind raise questions. They start raising questions on the Election Commission. Something has to be done for this and it cannot continue like this.
