NEW DELHI, 7 March 2004 — An all-party meeting yesterday unanimously demanded a ban on opinion and exit polls before the completion of the last phase of polling on May 10. The meeting was convened by the Election Commission. EC sources said the spate of personal attacks in course of campaigning and advertisements by political parties and candidates was also on the agenda.
The meeting took place in the light of a Supreme Court ban on all offensive election-related advertisements. The court warned that it would consider making slanderous advertisements an electoral offense.
Six national political parties and 45 state parties were invited to the meeting to discuss election-related issues.
Meanwhile, Congress President Sonia Gandhi filed her nomination papers yesterday for the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi and father-in-law Feroze Gandhi represented the constituency in the past. The day also coincided with her completion of six years as party chief.
Sonia succeeded Sitaram Kesri as the All India Congress Committee chief on March 14, 1998 and was elected chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party on March 16. But it was on April 6 that a special session of the AICC ratified her appointment as the party chief.
Another top leader and defense minister, George Fernandes, filed his nomination paper from the Muzaffarpur Lok Sabha constituency for the second phase of parliamentary elections in Bihar.
Fernandes accompanied by federal ministers Sharad Yadav, Nitish Kumar and Digvijay Singh, filed his nomination papers before the returning officer. The Janata Dal (United) president, who represented Nalanda in the dissolved Parliament, has shifted his constituency this time and is contesting Muzaffarpur.
