Trinamul Congress member of Parliament Saket Gokhale has written to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) demanding an investigation into stock market manipulation through exit polls, specifically India Today-Axis MyIndia, which allegedly "massively inflated" the seat numbers for the BJP-led NDA. “In Bengal, they predicted 26-31 seats for the BJP which actually got just 12 seats. That's an exaggeration of a whopping 116-158 per cent.
This is way beyond any standard margin of error. On the back of exit polls, stock markets spiked massively on Monday. And after the results yesterday, the markets crashed to an unprecedented level.
I have asked Sebi to investigate if there are entities that booked profits through selling on June 3 and made even more profits on June 4 by short selling. Have also asked to investigate whether any of these entities have direct or indirect links with the BJP or with pollsters like Axis MyIndia,” said Mr Gokhale in a post on X. “The exit polls were clearly manipulated to rally the stock market.
Lakhs of crores of investors' money were later wiped off on June 4 after the markets crashed. There must be an investigation to determine if pollsters like Axis MyIndia intentionally inflated the exit polls for the BJP. This is important because Axis MyIndia also had the BJP as a client.
The investigation must also determine whether the BJP and any poll agencies have made crores by manipulating the stock markets through exit polls,” he added..
