Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala on Sunday said pollsters had fraudulently placed the Left Democratic Front (LDF) ahead in electoral surveys to eclipse the groundswell of support for the United Democratic Front (UDF).
At least two recent poll surveys had placed the UDF second to the LDF in the electoral race. Mr. Chennithala said the pollsters had also attempted to target him.
Some surveys had placed Mr. Chennithala third in the choice between him, Oommen Chandy and Pinarayi Vijayan for the post of Chief Minister. The pollsters had behaved as the cat’s paw of powers he had exposed through his campaign against corruption.
He said the surveys were no barometer of public opinion. They were limited in scope. The sampling barely skimmed the surface. Not even 15 of voters had participated in the surveys.
Not people’s will
The same set of people had conducted surveys for different media houses. Their findings did not reflect the will of the people. They merely provided a fig leaf to temporarily mask the looming defeat staring at the face of the LDF.
In the previous Lok Sabha (LS) elections, pollsters had predicted that the LDF would win 12 to 15 seats. The UDF bagged 19 out of the 20. It trumped poll predictions. In Thiruvananthapuram LS segment, surveys predicted a win for Kummanam Rajasekharan of the BJP. However, Sashi Tharoor won by a margin of 1 lakh votes. In Palakkad, pollsters placed K. Sreekantan third in the surveys. He carried the battle. The trend would reflect again in the Assembly polls.
Some sections of the mainstream media displayed a bias against the UDF. They seemed swayed by the glut of advertisements placed by the LDF. The BJP and LDF vied each other in spending power. Both fronts have spend astonishing amounts of money on election propaganda.
He dared Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to be candid about the government’s stance on Sabarimala. “Will you file an affidavit preventing the entry of women of childbearing age into the Ayyappa temple?” he asked.
