TMC seeks meeting with SEBI chairperson, alleges 'stock market manipulation' after exit poll

TMC seeks meeting with SEBI chairperson, alleges 'stock market manipulation' after exit poll

The Trinamool Congress has written to the Securities and Exchange Board of India, alleging "stock market manipulation" through "misleading exit polls", and sought an appointment with SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch to discuss the issue.

According to TMC sources, a delegation of party leaders will go to the SEBI office in Mumbai at 11.30 am on June 18 for which they have sought the appointment.

The sources said the four-member TMC delegation — consisting of MPs Kalyan Banerjee, Sagarika Ghose, Pratima Mondal and Saket Gokhale — will be accompanied by one representative each from the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Nationalist Congress Party (SP).

Several other INDIA bloc parties, including the Congress, have alleged a stock market "scam", questioning its steep rise following the exit poll results, and the crash after the official results came.

Exit polls broadcast on June 1 predicted a massive win for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). But when the votes were counted on June 4, the BJP got 240 seats, falling short of the majority mark of 272, even though the NDA got enough numbers to retain power.

Opposition parties have also demanded a joint parliamentary committee probe, and the issue is likely to cause an uproar in the upcoming parliament session.

In a letter signed by TMC's parliamentary party leader in Rajya Sabha Derek O'Brien, the party said several mysterious circumstances surround the "stock market volatility" of June 3-4. The exit poll results were broadcast on June 1 after the last phase of Lok Sabha polls.

"It is important to know whether any of these agencies had manipulated their predictions to influence the markets," the letter reads.

The TMC said that in the run-up to the 7th and last phase of polling on June 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah made statements in their TV interviews where they specifically asked people to "purchase stocks before 4th June" and also said that "the markets will shoot up on 4th June".

"These statements combined with the market spike on 3rd June based on misleading exit poll results made people falsely believe that 4th June would see markets rise further as claimed by Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah," the TMC said.

The party named the India Today Axis MyIndia poll which is the most-viewed, and said it was completely misleading.

"Agencies conducting exit polls had a huge bearing on the stock markets. Therefore, it is important to know whether any of these agencies had manipulated their predictions to influence the markets," the letter said.

It also alleged some "prominent politicians who are part of the new NDA Union Government, their spouses, and families have made massive profits after shares of the listed companies in which they are stakeholders spiked heavily on the back of exit polls".

"These instances show that there is a very credible possibility that a scam was carried out in the stock markets through rigged exit poll results. As a result of this purported scam, scores of ordinary Indian investors lost their hard-earned money," they said.

The TMC sources said they have conveyed to the SEBI chairperson's office that they are ready to meet a representative if the chairperson herself is busy. However, they have not received any confirmation of any meeting yet, the source added.

Earlier, TMC MP Saket Gokhale had filed a complaint with the SEBI alleging "stock market manipulation", and demanded an investigation into statements by senior BJP leaders "asking people to invest in stocks, hinting at election results".