Bharatiya Janata Party (RJD) MP Manoj Kumar Jha on Monday questioned the credibility of the Election Commission of India (ECI), citing the recent pre-election surveys.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s controversial remarks during the Lok Sabha election campaign, the RJD lawmaker said he had complained to the Election Commission several times during the first phase of elections but received a response only two days ago.
“The day before yesterday I received an email asking for my name, address and phone number. What is this for? Is this the system?” Jha said during the debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address.
Citing a pre-poll survey conducted by Lokniti CSDS, he said only 28 percent of respondents had “a lot of confidence” in the Election Commission.
“Panchayat’s web series ‘My Poora Made Gram Pradhan’ will be released today (Even the village head Pulera, who appears in the panchayat web series, is more credible than the Election Commission),” Jha said.
Panchayat is a popular web series in which veteran actor Raghubir Yadav plays the character of ‘Pradhan Ji’.
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More than half of voters said they had a great deal of confidence in the Election Commission in 2019, but in the latest survey, only 28% had a great deal of confidence. The Lokniti CSDS survey showed a slight increase in those who said they had “some confidence” in the Election Commission, from 27% to 30%.
The proportion of people who have little or no trust has doubled from 7% and 5% in 2019 to now stand at 14% and 9%, respectively.
According to the survey, 17% of respondents thought it was “very likely” that EVMs would be manipulated by the ruling party, while 28% thought it was “somewhat likely.” In contrast, 27% thought it was “low probability” that EVMs would be manipulated, and the remaining respondents had no opinion.
The 2024 Lokniti-CSDS advance polls collated responses from 10,019 people across 19 states.
