Exit-poll results Vs Results

As I write this blog, the Indian Parliament election result is being announced. The trend shows that the election pundits are once again proved to be inefficient in predicting the results. They predicted that JMM would be deciding the next government. For the uninitiated, JMM is Ms. Jayalalitha, Ms. Mamata and Ms. Mayavathi! The pundits predicted that NDA would form the next government with the support of JMM. They predicted UPA may get only as many if not less number of seats as NDA. The results speak a different story!

The media and the pundits used scientific methods and proper sampling for the survey. They partnered professional consumer survey companies to increase the accuracy of their predictions. In spite of such measures, they were caught unaware by the actual results. I wonder if their prediction mechanisms took voter's psych into consideration. It has been rumored that, this year more than any other years in the past, voters were paid to vote for a particular candidate. If that's true, what would the voters say when they were approached by the surveyors? Of course, they would say they voted for the party that paid them money even if they have voted for some other party. They have no reason to believe that the surveyor is actually from a post-poll surveying company and not someone from the party that paid them money. I don't know if the surveying companies considered this possibility!

If this reason is true or even partially true, then it can skew the results. If that's the case, can we then assume those parties that were predicted to win during the post-poll but lost when the actual results were announced, were actually that parties that paid the voters! Ineteresting!!

Registering your name in the list Vs Voting

Ah! Did I say registering my name in the voters list was easy (Election koothu!)? Of course it was easy! But that does not necessarily mean your name will figure in the final list. After two visits to the Taluk office, I was confident that my name would be there in the final voters list. Hm! Hm! someone in the election commission decided that Mr. Kamal Haasan and I shouldn't be voting this election! Though I was very disappointed that my name did not find a place in the list and I could not vote, it was a big consolation that even someone as popular as Mr. Kamal Haasan was dropped from the list! Praise democracy and equal treatment to all!!

Pay the voters or make the voters pay?

We have heard enough of candidates paying voters to listen to their propaganda. It is a big business during election time. Agents pick up loads of people from huts and villages to the meeting venue; arrange snacks and lunch for them; depending on the venue of the meeting, they arrange for site seeing; and finally pay them for their day's 'work'!

That's old news! Have you heard of a politician who makes his voters pay to listen to his propaganda? Here comes Mr. Vijayakanth, actor/politician from TN. This smart politician has been timing his movies, which is loaded with political overtures and his party's propaganda, in such a way that his die-hard fans pay to watch his movie and listen to his propaganda as well.

Now isn't he a politician at the core?