Poll surveys are here to stay

Certain innocence in media reporting of electoral surveys, both pre-poll and exit polls, deserves to be understood better now that they have come to stay and have become part of our electoral process. An exit poll is expected to be more reliable than a pre-poll survey. An exit poll result is not expected to be in the quot;reverse directionquot; of the actual result, as happened in the case of Madhya Pradesh last month, and or Maharastra and Tamil Nadu earlier. And, when it does, it makes news. In fact, an exit poll becomes news for the media only when it goes off the mark, not when it is right.