Sharad Pawar Backs Opposition Demand for Probe into Stock Market Manipulation During Exit Polls

Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday declared his support for the opposition's demand for a probe into alleged stock market manipulation through exit polls. These polls predicted a sweeping majority for the BJP alone, estimating over 370 to 400 seats for the NDA in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.

TMC MPs Kalyan Banerjee, Saket Gokhale, and Sagarika Ghosh are in Mumbai to visit SEBI officials and call for an investigation into the matter. Before visiting SEBI, the MPs from the Mamata Banerjee-led party met Sharad Pawar at his residence, Silver Oak, in Mumbai. Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant and NCP MP Supriya Sule were also present at the meeting.

Sharad Pawar took to X (formerly Twitter) to inform about his party's support for the demand for a probe, stating, "AITC MPs Kalyan Banerjee, Sagarika Ghosh, and Saket Gokhale are in Mumbai to visit SEBI demanding an investigation into stock market manipulation during exit polls. NCP is supporting them in this cause. This morning they made a courtesy visit to my Mumbai residence along with Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant. MP Supriya Sule & Ex MLC Vidya Chavan were also present."

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Earlier, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had raised similar allegations. He accused top BJP leaders of making misleading predictions about stock prices surging after June 4, the day the results were announced. Gandhi claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraged people to buy stocks beforehand, which led to significant losses when the market crashed.

During the campaign, both PM Modi and Amit Shah had expressed confidence that the stock market would surge after their victory. After the exit polls on June 1 suggested the BJP might achieve the numbers it had been predicting, the market surged. However, when the results were announced on June 4, the BJP fell short of a majority. Following this, the market crashed, wiping out over ₹35 lakh crore of investors' money.