Letters: Voting for the underdog

This refers to T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan's article "The case for banning opinion polls" (November 8). There are a few aspects of this issue that need to be considered. First, there are many things that can shape a voter's perception and the final decision to cast his/her vote in one candidate's favour. After all, voters are human beings and will interpret various inputs in their own individual ways. So why should we look askance at opinion polls? Secondly, it is not necessary that all undecided voters will definitely be influenced by the opinion polls and certainly not in one particular way. Can it be anybody's indisputable case that undecided voters prefer to cast their vote in favour of a candidate more likely to win? Is it not possible that some undecided voters could, by nature, be sympathetic to the "underdog" and cast their vote in favour of the "losing" candidate? Finally, if we are so worried about things that may influence voters, the very concept of elections will be open to question.

Kishor Kulkarni Mumbai

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