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New booth capturers BY Chandrabhan Prasad Despite a campaign by seven news channels that UP was heading for a hung Assembly, the BSP won with absolute majority, proving all exit polls wrong. Even though the Election Commission made sure it would be free and fair poll, a new breed of virtual booth-capturers operated throughout UP. And they were the pollsters making prophesies for a hung Assembly. Wouldn't an eight week campaign by seven premier TV channels' have impacted voters' choice? The pre-poll/exit poll results pronouncing a split verdict was there in all daily newspapers reaching out to millions of people across the country. The ordinary voters, the local level vote lords and independent candidates switched sides and navigated towards potential winners, impacting the poll outcome. Often, in a perceived hung verdict, many voters change their mind and others lose interest, preferring not to vote. Let's take an example. If a 100 voters saw these news channels predicting a hung House in UP, five of them may have changed their mind and 10 may not have gone to vote. The eight-week-long 'hung Assembly' campaign by these news channels may have, thus, predestined the fate of at least 25 seats. In a State going to polls for 403 seats with a history of hung Assembly for a decade-and-half, a 25-seat difference could change the scenario completely. As a matter of fact, the BSP got an absolute majority by winning 206 seats. What if the news channels had run the following story for eight weeks: That BSP is headed for an absolute majority, The SP and BJP are nowhere in the race and the Congress is finished, and Mayawati's Dalit-Brahman thesis is doing wonders with even Muslims going to vote for the BSP. Had this been the campaign line of news channels, what may have been the tally of the BSP - 225 or 250 seats? May be because of the adverse campaign run by the channels, the BSP lost 15 seats. This, in my opinion, amounts to rigging in Uttar Pradesh by the news channels. On an average, an Assembly segment in UP has 250 polling booths. If the BSP lost 15 seats on account of an adverse TV campaign, 3,750 polling booths were virtually captured by these news channels which include CNN-IBN, NDTV 24X7, NDTV-INDIA, Channel 7, Times Now, Star News, and India TV. The result - the BSP lost in 3,750 booths because of these 'new age booth capturers'. Humans make mistakes and the same can be claimed by news channels. The question remains - why didn't the mistake go in favour of the BSP? Why didn't CNN-IBN in its inaugural prediction on March 27, 2007 give the BSP 262 seats - 56 seats more than what it actually got? After all, by mistake, CNN-IBN gave the BSP 56 seats less. Similarly, why didn't NDTV 24X7 in its April 7, 2007 exit poll, make a mistake and give the BSP 277 seats - 71 seats more than its actual tally of 206 seats. After all, the news channel made a mistake and gave the party only 135 seats - 71 seats less than what it got. Similar mistakes were made by Star News, Times Now and India TV. Does this not mean that all of them, not by intent of course, but by implication, graduated into a breed of 'new booth capturers'? India's elite is increasingly becoming faceless and anti-modern. It is partisan, irresponsible, and insensitive to history's aspirations. The elite is fast turning into a liability. Arrogance is becoming a trade mark and intellectual incompetence emerging as an asset. In this long-drawn series, the Dalit Diary wishes to engage with the elite, debate with it on critical issues facing our nation and remind it that it needs to emancipate itself from history propelled consciousness. Dalits have done their best in this direction and so have the average non-Dalits in UP. Watch out for this special series every Sunday.
