‘Need self-introspection on exit poll predictions’

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday came down heavily on exit polls, saying that there was an urgent need for agencies conducting them to indulge in self-introspection, as the mismatch between the actual results and expectations raised by them leads to frustration and it was a matter of serious concern.

“We cannot do anything about exit polls as our hands are tied, but I think time has come that agencies conducting these exercises should do some sort of introspection. Self-correction happens as time evolves and I hope that all responsible people will indulge in some kind of self-correction in future,” Kumar said while addressing a press conference to announce the schedule for Assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

Responding to queries on mismatch between predictions by exit polls and actual results, which was seen during the recently concluded Haryana assembly elections and the Lok Sabha polls held earlier this year, Kumar said that such exercises create a lot of distortions and the electronic media should introspect about it. “Distortions are created due to expectations raised by exit polls... We don’t govern them but their sample size needs to be matched. There is no scientific basis on which these exit polls declare their results,” the CEC said.