Congress says will not participate on panels on opinion poll

New Delhi: After pushing for a ban on opinion polls, the Congress party has not decided not to be part of panel on opinion poll surveys. The party says that opinion polls were unscientific and thus it does not support opinion polls.

The Congress has come under heavy criticism for suggesting a ban on opinion poll. After the CNN-IBN-The Week-CSDS survey and other polls showed the Congress losing ground ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the party has written to the Election Commission insisting opinion polls should be banned.

The BJP, which is seen as one of the major beneficiaries of the space vacated by the Congress, has opposed any move to ban pre-poll surveys saying that such a move is aimed at restricting free speech.

"Opinion polls should be banned. This has become a joke," said an agitated Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh, just days after most pre-poll studies projected a hammering for his party in the upcoming Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi.

BJP'sprime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi also slammed the Congress, terming Congress' favouring a ban on opinion polls as "utterly puerile"., BJP's prime ministerial candidate also appealed to the people to "reject the anti-democratic Congress not only in an opinion poll but at the polling booth as well."