First it was the Kautilya survey which made news across Goa and then next came the Goa University’s Department of Management Studies survey from a tie-up with a Goan television channel which predicted certain results of an Assembly election which is more than four months away. Even worse, these surveys came up during the last session of the Assembly which created uneasiness among our 40 MLAs.
“It’s a kind-off nice to see a survey and get an idea of our MLA and his popularity and performance ahead of elections and the campaigning. Gives a fair idea as to what to confront our MLA or the political party or even the candidates who will start approaching us,” stated Martha D’Costa from Chinchinim who says that she watched television twice and read the surveys and the screenshots of the surveys on Facebook.
But not everybody thinks like Martha. There’s a lot of questioning as the Kautilya survey gave huge thumps up to newcomers AAP while they rubbished the BJP government and its performance across the last five years.
Dr Francisco Colaco, a noted cardiologist was the first to bring up the issue of these surveys as he got into a tussle on Facebook with Aam Admi party’s convenor Vamiki Naik stating that Kautilya survey doesn’t state its sample size and doesn’t give details as to how data was collected and hence a survey that doesn’t give details of hos data was collected seems more like a survey that is rigged.
Social media analyst Datta Sena who runs a startup Digital marketing Agency called Elipse Digital explains us that recently an individual from Delhi associated with the ruling party in the state and at the Central government offered to collaborate with his company to start social media campaigns for politicians in Goa.
“These agencies are indirectly associated with political parties and then they run such fears to create a fear psychosis amongst MLAs, ministers, political parties and candidates and then approach them with social media campaigns and on ground advertising and campaign strategies at an expensive rate. The end point of these surveys is mostly of this nature,” explains Datta.
Similarly, Advocate Carlos Alvares Ferreira explains that no survey has an any legal binding and as such they mean nothing.
“The election commission has certain rules for exit polls and surveys but the election commission comes into play only after elections dates are declared and the poll code is in force. Until then, these surveys can have a free run,” explains Carlos.
Carlos tells us that every survey is paid for and has a client and obviously there will be a political party or someone with vested interest who will fund and fuel such campaigns. Sometimes campaigns are even paid for to get a certain desired result which is predefined even before it is started.
“In my constituency there are 28,000 voters and one of the surveys says that it spoke to 5,000 people in each constituency. My question is whether all these 5,000 have sworn some oath of secrecy or are my enemies that not even one said they took a survey in my constituency or the numbers claimed by this survey company is a farce and a complete lie. I think the latter,” stated Navelim MLA Avertano Furtado.
These surveys that show me as unsafe and I think the programme on television is so childish and overhyped. The ones who air and publish these surveys will next approach me for advertisements and send me campaign pitches. It’s obvious that these surveys are rigged and are misguiding people, complains Nuvem MLA Mickky Pacheco.
Similarly Caitu Silva, Benaulim MLA explains that elections are months away and the campaign is just picking up. The campaign guys are rigging surveys so that they can get politicians to start running on their campaign. When I can reach my destination by walking the why run and fall on my face. These campaigns are the doing of industrialists and politicians who have lost last time, who want to fastrack the campaigning process.
Similarly, a political writer from Margao explains that the subtle campaign for polls has begun like sending people to Shirdi, Valainkani and giving sops, loans and goodies. This will gain pace over Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali and Christmas and then the direct campaign and money distribution will also begin. And the surveys help in all this to influence people’s minds, to write off sitting MLAs or to create pressure.
“Why don’t these surveys not come every six months and just before elections? Like we expect rains in the monsoon seasons similarly we should expect surveys in the survey season. And this is the season of surveys. But there’s one truth in these surveys and it’s that the BJP has lost ground and people have no faith in this government that they elected in 2012 and the Congress is reclaiming that ground,” stated Congress president in Goa, Luizinho Faleiro.
Similarly former MP and Union Minister Ramakant Khalap stated that he questions the genuineness, veracity, reliability and truth of the Kautilya survey and feels that it’s done for political gains and funded by vested political interests.
The Department of Management Studies professor tells the Herald that they do these surveys often and have done it six times before with the same television channel taking a sample space around every voting booth in each constituency to be genuine and to get a correct mood in Goa and hence they feel the survey is very balanced.
While Terry D’Souza from Nuvem who works for a date collection company in Mumbai explains that many times surveys are done through students who are interns or done by students from another state who don’t really know the depth of the questionnaire or the issues of the region and hence fail to correct genuine, detailed data and even fail to compile it properly. Though statistics give some indications but most of it is wrong and misconstrued.
