Exit polls not exact polls, most have gone wrong: Venkaiah Naidu

Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday (May 19) mocked the exit polls, saying they were not exact polls. “Exit polls do not mean exact polls. We have to understand that. Since 1999, most of the exit polls have gone wrong,” the Vice-President pointed out.

Naidu addressed an informal meeting of well-wishers, who felicitated him in Guntur. Referring to the ongoing general elections, he said every party exuded confidence (over victory). “Everyone exhibits his own confidence till the 23rd (day of counting). There will be no base for it. So we have to wait for 23rd,” he remarked.

“Country and the state need an able leader and stable government, whoever it be. That’s what is required. That’s all,” Naidu observed. The Vice-President also said change in society should start with political parties. “If democracy has to strengthen and something good has to happen to people elections, selections, candidates, parties all should discharge their duties responsibly and properly,” he noted.

The Vice-President lamented that civility has become a casualty in the present political discourse. “There is a lot of degeneration in the speeches of political leaders. They are resorting to personal abuses. One is not an enemy to the other in politics, they are only rivals… They are forgetting this basic fact,” he said. Expressing anguish over the behaviour of elected representatives in Parliament and state legislatures, he said, “See how MPs are behaving in Parliament and MLAs in Assembly, irrespective of the parties. Panchayat and civic bodies’ members follow them.”

The Vice-President also found fault with political parties announcing freebies to win over the electorate. “The way parties are behaving.. you have been given a mandate for five years. You have to work. Without doing that, you announce freebies at the last minute. I am always opposed to it. Free power means, no power,” Naidu observed.