We're professional, have no political allegiance: GRAAM as Congress questions poll survey

Bengaluru: Mysuru-based Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement (GRAAM) said Friday it held no political or ideological allegiances, and it was selected by the Karnataka Monitoring and Evaluation Authority (KMEA) "through a competitive bidding process" for the 2024 Lok Sabha election survey.

GRAAM, which carried out the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP), has come under fire by Congress after the survey found that a majority of respondents trusted the election process and Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).

Congress alleged that GRAAM had a conflict of interest with its founder R Balasubramaniam holding a union government position. "He is the founder of the organisation, but holds no position or is involved with GRAAM in any capacity for several years now," GRAAM executive director Basavaraju R said in a statement.

In 2021, Balasubramaniam was appointed as member - human resources of the Capacity Building Commission (CBC), which is the executive body of the Mission Karmayogi framework of the union government. He stepped down as chairperson of GRAAM's board of trustees on March 31, 2022, Basavaraju said.

Basavaraju specified that GRAAM was "not solely selected or preferred" to carry out the KAP survey.

"We were selected after passing through a competitive bidding process, having scored a high technical score, by a committee of experts duly constituted by KMEA. We passed through the stipulated processes of tendering and selection competing with other agencies who had applied to undertake this study," Basavaraju said, adding that GRAAM operated under a professional board.

"GRAAM’s role in this exercise was strictly limited to conducting the study as an independent research agency, in accordance with the methodology and ethical standards prescribed in the Terms of Reference (ToR) issued by KMEA. The design, execution, sample size, data collection and analysis followed established social research protocols based on the ToR issued to us," Basavaraju said, adding that GRAAM "stands by professional standards followed in conducting this study".

KMEA, which functions under the department of planning, programme monitoring & statistics, approved the final report in November 2025. GRAAM submitted printed copies of the report on December 1, 2025.

Basavaraju said GRAAM has worked in 18 states. "We have done various studies for Government of Karnataka through KMEA and other departments as well," he said. GRAAM was involved in an assessment of the Anna Bhagya scheme in June 2014 when the Siddaramaiah-led Congress was in power.