DS scoffs at 'redundant' survey, says predictions lopsided

Scoffing at the findings of the Nielsen and ORG-Marg survey which was conducted by NTV, a vernacular television news channel, Pradesh Congress Committee president D Srinivas on Saturday said that the survey was conducted to try and dampen the surge of support  to the Congress party in the wave of the Praja Rajyam Party merger announcement.

Speaking to media persons at Gandhi Bhavan, Mr Srinivas said that the survey was redundant as no elections were around the corner.

The survey finding have predicted that the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party would be wiped out from the state while former Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s yet-to-be-launched party would sweep Seemandhra region and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi will get a thumping majority in Telangana region.

The PCC chief said that the survey was conducted solely to promote one man. He however did not name who he thought was the beneficiary of the survey.

Mr Srinivas said that it would be understandable if the survey was carried out if elections were around the corner. He reminded that the next general elections are three years away and wondered why such an exercise was taken up now.

The PCC chief said that if the survey was conducted and limited to the Kadapa district, he would have been ready to at least give its findings any thought, but going through the survey report at this time was a sheer waste of time since the report itself was redundant.

Mr Srinivas said that apart from the report being redundant, there was no guarantee that its findings were true. When pointed out that the survey had given the Congress 158 seats in the 2009 general election and it eventually won 156 seats, Mr Srinivas said that it may have got its predictions right at that time, but it was still not enough guarantee that the agency which carried out the survey would be right every time.

Asked if the Congress has decided on candidates for the elections to the Legislative Council which the Election Commission had announced on Friday, Mr Srinivas said that the onus lies with the Chief Minister to name the candidates.