New Delhi: AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal on Monday urged the Election Commission to ensure a code for the telecast and publication of opinion polls.
In a separate letter, the former Delhi chief minister asked the News Broadcasting Standards Authority to probe the role of some news channels in broadcasting manipulated opinion polls.
The letters follow a sting operation conducted by a Hindi television news channel that indicated a conspiracy to manufacture and manipulate public opinion before the election through opinion polls.
Kejriwal said the sting operation represented a “dark hour for the Indian media” and “strikes at the very root of our country’s democracy”.
“The sting operation shows that the heads of some of the well-known polling organisations are willing to manipulate pre-poll survey results for monetary considerations,” he wrote in his letter to Justice (retired) RV Raveendran, chairperson of the NBSA.
“There are serious allegations about many news channels being willing partners to this manipulation. It shows that some political parties have been buying favourable surveys, often using black money,” he added.
Kejriwal demanded a criminal investigation into such manipulation.
