THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All pre-poll survey reports which have come out till now, are in favor of LDF. UDF has lashed out at the media for these opinion surveys. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has also filed a complaint against these surveys before the poll panel. However, the election commission has taken the stand that they cannot put a bar on surveys as they are not exit polls. This has been a major setback for the UDF camp.

It is alleged that the survey results will influence the voter’s mind. Opposition leaders think that the results will make a psychological impact among the voters to vote in favor of the party which has the most chances of victory. Even though this is the primary reason for the opposition to reject the survey reports, there are other factors behind the opposition to survey results. The most important among them are collecting funds for polls and the funds needed to manage the daily functioning of the party. The contributions of corporate companies to a party that is destined to fail will be negligible and this will badly impact the party’s poll campaign. Available information says that survey results have put UDF’s fund collection process in tatters.

When LDF is able to give its poll advertisements in other language newspapers, UDF is struggling to advertise its poll campaigns even in Malayalam newspapers. UDF is also lagging behind others in its poll campaign on social media. The UDF leaders also concur with the fact that this has happened due to low fund collection. Therefore, this reason has also prompted the right front to turn against the survey reports of news channels.

The opposition leader has already alleged that the survey results could have been sponsored by KIIFB. “In the last year of this government’s tenure about Rs 200 crore was disbursed to the media in the form of government advertisements. Therefore, the media is taking such a unilateral stand, as a goodwill gesture,” Chennithala said.

BJP is the only national party that gets most of the corporate funds. Even though it is followed by Congress, it doesn’t reach anywhere near BJP. Latest reports say that as the party has lost power in most states, the traditional fund sources have distanced from the party leadership. In Kerala, it is CPM that gets most of the election funds. Poll observes also state that with predictions of another term, CPM will be able to garner more funds from different sources. Whereas the condition of UDF and Congress will be deplorable.