Poll surveys are 'entertainment programmes': Nitish

With poll surveys indicating increase in seats for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance under its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in 2014 polls, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today dismissed such surveys based on small samples and said those were nothing more than "entertainment programmes".

"These surveys based on sample size of only 4000 and without considering the fact that India does not have a bipolar political set up but a multi-party ethos are not true... They are nothing more than entertainment programmes," Kumar told reporters.

"Everybody knows these are PR exercise to falsely claim that nation's mood is in their favour," he said. "When results of the elections will come, the people going euphoric over such surveys will fall flat," he said in an apparent dig at his estranged NDA partner, the BJP.

All TV channels showing survey reports had predicted hung Assembly in Bihar in both 2005 and 2010 state elections, but they all proved wrong when the ballot boxes were  opened," he said.

Picking holes in the recent survey reports, Kumar said while he was credited for bringing development in Bihar, it was shown that the Janata Dal-United would get not more than 9 seats out of a total 40 seats in Bihar.

"Do they mean that discredited people will win all the seats in the state?" he asked.

"Those basking in the glory of such surveys will have no place to hide their faces when the poll results will be declared," he said.