Opinion Polls / Exit Polls

Exit poll as the name suggests is the poll carried out when the voters exit from the polling booth. In other words, it is a kind of survey carried out by various non-governmental organisations (news channels, press etc.) to know about the possible outcome of the polls and made predictions based on the information collected. In this process the voters are enquired about the party they had voted for when they came out of the polling station/booth.

Exit Poll vs Opinion Poll
Some people get confused between exit polls and opinion polls. Actually, when voters are asked about the party they had voted for after they have given the vote, it is called exit poll. But, when voters are asked about the party they have decided to vote before they have actually voted, it is called opinion poll.

Latest News: Election Commission bans exit poll till last phase of elections
According to a recent news report, the Election Commission of India had banned the disclosure or dissemmination of results of the opinion polls during 48 hours before the end of the poll, for single-phased elections. In case of multi-phased elections, the Election Commission had put a blanket ban on the exit polls till the last round of voting is over.

The decision from the EC has come following a notification from the Supreme Court of India. In its notification the SC had said that EC has the right and authority to put a ban on the exit and opinion polls during election time and it should implement the ban.

Actually, the decision was taken by the bench of K.G. Balakrishnan, Honb'le Chief Justice of India and Justice P Sathasivam. “The Election Commission is free to frame its guidelines to regulate publication of exit polls” said the bench on a petition seeking ban on such surveys.

Finally, the Commission issued guidelines according to which, “No result of any opinion or exit poll conducted at any time shall be published, publicised or disseminated in any manner by print, electronic or any other media at any time during the period of 48 hours ending with the hour fixed for closing of poll in an election held in a single phase.” This order will be applicable to all the states and territories in which the elections are going to held in different phases.

According to the EC guidelines, electronic media includes the following:

• Government and private radio and television and covers satellite
• Direct-to-home
• Terrestrial and cable channels
• Further, dissemination includes: Publication in any newspaper
• Magazine or periodical
• Display on electronic media
• Circulation by means of any pamphlet, poster, placard, handbill or any other document

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Projection by a media company

STATES / UTs	CONG	ALLIES	BJP	ALLIES	LEFT	OTHERS	TOTAL
STATES
Andhra Pradesh	21	0	0	0	2	19	42
Arunachal Pradesh	0	0	2	0	0	0	2
Assam	6	0	4	2	0	2	14
Bihar	4	12	10	14	0	0	40
Goa	1	0	1	0	0	0	2
Gujarat	6	0	20	0	0	0	26
Haryana	4	0	2	4	0	0	10
Himachal Pradesh	1	0	3	0	0	0	4
Jammu & Kashmir	2	3	1	0	0	0	6
Karnataka	8	0	18	0	0	2	28
Kerala	10	2	0	0	8	0	20
Madhya Pradesh	9	0	19	0	0	1	29
Maharashtra	10	14	10	14	0	0	48
Manipur	1	0	0	0	0	1	2
Meghalaya	1	1	0	0	0	0	2
Mizoram	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Nagaland	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
Orissa	4	0	3	14	0	0	21
Punjab	6	0	2	4	0	1	13
Rajasthan	13	0	12	0	0	0	25
Sikkim	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Tamil Nadu	5	11	0	0	2	21	39
Tripura	0	0	0	0	2	0	2
Uttar Pradesh	10	0	8	3	0	59	80
West Bengal	8	8	0	0	26	0	42
Andaman & Nicobar Islands	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Chandigarh	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Chhattisgarh	3	0	8	0	0	0	11
Dadra & Nagar Haveli	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Daman & Diu	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
Jharkhand	3	2	9	0	0	0	14
Lakshadweep	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
Delhi	5	0	2	0	0	0	7
Pondicherry	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
Uttarakhand	1	0	4	0	0	0	5
Total	146	55	138	57	40	107	543
UPA 201		NDA 195		3rd Front 82		Other 65