The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Congress decries Naidu's remarks against NDTV

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Monday, May 03, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Congress decries Naidu's remarks against NDTV

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, MAY 2. The Congress has taken exception to the criticism against the NDTV's exit polls which predicted the defeat of the Telugu Desam Party led by N. Chandrababu Naidu.

To target the NDTV, which enjoyed credibility across the country for its electoral studies, was undemocratic, the APCC chief spokesman, K. Rosaiah, told a news conference here on Sunday. Advising Mr. Naidu to step down gracefully once the results were out, he said the Congress did the same when it handed over power to the TDP in 1994.

Mr. Rosaiah said it was ironic that Mr. Naidu had attacked the NDTV after heaping praises on it barely two months ago for predicting through a pre-poll survey that the TDP-BJP combine would win 34 Lok Sabha seats. He had even congratulated the channel on carrying out an extensive survey and discussed with its top brass the methodology adopted. But, with the exit poll going against the TDP, Mr. Naidu turned his ire at it.

The spokesman said that Mr. Naidu had in the past even stopped issue of advertisements to the newspapers which were inimical to the Government. It would not be surprising if he even found fault with the Election Commission alleging irregularities in counting after the defeat of the TDP.

The senior Congress leader said M/s. A.C. Nielsen, the agency which partnered NDTV in the exit poll survey, had been drafted by the State Government several times in the past to gauge public opinion on Government programmes. The same agency was now the butt of criticism by Mr. Naidu.

The Chief Minister had made a false claim that NDTV had gone wrong in predicting the victory of Congress in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in the recent elections to the State Assemblies. In fact, the channel had not done any such survey in the States, Mr. Rosaiah said.

The Congress had welcomed an in-depth debate on pre-poll and exit poll surveys. A legislation can be made after the discussion is over and the EC presented its argument. The Congress had no objection if the surveys were banned with the consent of political parties.

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