The head of Axis My India calls calls to outlaw exit polls "childish."
After the 2024 Lok Sabha exit elections, Pradeep Gupta is willing to look into allegations of stock market manipulation since he believes regulations for pollsters would improve their ability to conduct business.
New Delhi: In response to criticism from the opposition regarding the purported use of exit polls for stock market manipulation, Pradeep Gupta, the CEO of Axis My India, has stated that he is willing to cooperate with any type of investigation and that it would improve business operations if the government established regulations specifically for pollsters.
Following a sharp decline in the stock markets following exit polls that gave the BJP a landslide majority, opposition parties and various civil society groups have been pressing for comprehensive investigations, including by capital markets regulator SEBI and a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). The actual results, however, showed the ruling party falling short of a clear majority on its own.
Gupta stated in an interview with PTI that he has been calling for the creation of guidelines and standards for pollsters for the past five years.
Gupta, the chairman and managing director of Axis My India, described as "childish" the demands for outlawing exit polls, stating that every individual and organization wants to know the election results and that outlawing them would be pointless. Gupta had predicted 361-401 seats for the BJP-led alliance, compared to the actual tally of 240 seats.
"Although we have no relationship to the stock market at all, I am pleased to learn about these claims since our technology and data are so reliable that any investigation will allow me to show the public how all of that is used to forecast exit polls.
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