AICC rubbishes pre-poll prediction on Kerala

New Delhi, Apr 13 (UNI) The Congress Party today said the pre-poll prediction by a leading television channel on Kerala assembly election did not reflect the ground reality.

"We have all seen that poll surveys have become totally unreliable, especially when conducted with a very low number of electors," AICC Secretary in charge of Media Tom Vadakkan said about the CNN-IBN Poll which predicted a huge win for the Marxist-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala.

"The prediction about Kerala is totally contrary to the actual ground reality," he said, adding that "in any case surveys have been notoriously inaccurate when making predictions about Kerala." Mr Vadakkan said most polling organisations, being used to conduct surveys in extremely caste-polarised states, lead to use the same methodology. " In state like Kerala where caste has ceased to be a factor, hence skewed and false results." He pointed out that the Congress had lost all the 17 seats it had contested in the May 2004 Lok Sabha elections because of the internal bickerings between the mainstream Congress and the Karunakaran faction of the Kerala unit of the Party.

"This situation has been overcome with the alliance of the Congress with the Democratic Indira Congress floated by Mr Karunakaran a year ago." "The effect of the Congress alliance can only have been seen closer to the elections. Prior to this situation any poll conducted would give misleading results," Mr Vadakkan said.

He said the survey itself admitted that the lead percentages between the Congress-led ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) and the LDF had always been extremely narrow since 1977. "There is no ostensible reason given for the so-called huge lead of the LDF.

There is no major national or state level issue identified in Kerala which could swing the state towards LDF." Mr Vadakkan said the UDF would once again take over the reins of power in Kerala unless "something dramatic happens between now and the dates of elections." UNI SH RP HT1702