Karnataka Assembly polls: CVoter survey predicts Cong win; Zee News says tight race

With Karnataka getting ready to vote on May 10, opinion polls have predicted the Congress to give a tough fight to the BJP, with one survey indicating a sweep for the Grand Old Party.

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While the ABP-CVoter survey predicts the Congress to sweep the polls with a clear majority, the Zee News Opinion Polls says the BJP will end up as the single largest party, but no majority to form the government. Interestingly, 39.1 per cent of respondents want Siddaramaiah as the CM candidate, while 31.1 per cent preferred Basavaraj Bommai the incumbent, as per the survey.

ABP-CVoter survey findings

The ABP-CVoter survey, released on Wednesday (March 29), forecast a clean win for the Congress, stating that the party will grab 115 to 127 of the 224 Assembly seats. The BJP, on the other hand, is predicted to win 68-80 seats, while the JD(S) may get 23 to 35 seats.

At present, the ruling BJP has 118 MLAs, while the Congress has 69, the JD(S) 32, BSP 1 and Independents two seats in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.

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In the survey, 50.5 per cent of respondents rated the performance of the BJP-led Basavraj Bommai government as ‘poor’ while only 27.7 per cent of people called it ‘good.’

According to the survey, 57.1 per cent of the respondents said they were “angry with the state government led by BJP” and want it gone.

While 49.9 per cent rated the performance of Bommai as chief minister as ‘poor,’ only 26.8 per cent of respondents said it was ‘good.’

The opinion polls, however, found the performance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be good – while 47.4 respondents said it was ‘good’, 33.8 per cent said it was ‘poor’.

A majority of 39.1 per cent people wanted Congress leader Siddaramaiah to return as chief minister, while only 31.1 per cent wanted Bommai to retain the seat.

The issues of unemployment, minority status for Lingayats and the hijab row are predicted to determine the fate of the BJP government in the state.

Around 29.1 per cent of the respondents said that unemployment was the biggest issue in the state while 21.5 said the status of electricity, water and roads were issues that needed immediate attention.

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Around 30.8 respondents answered that minority status for Lingayats, and the hijab controversy, an issue which has been rocking the state for long, will determine the winner in this year’s elections.

Around 24.6 per cent respondents said they believe “religious polarisation” will play a key role in the polls.

Zee News opinion poll

The Zee News opinion poll, conducted by Matrize, predicts the BJP to win after a neck-and-neck fight with the Congress.

According to the opinion poll, the BJP is expected to win 96 to 106 of the total 224 Assembly seats, while the Congress may win 88-98 seats. The JD(S) is predicted to win 23-33 seats.

The survey predicts the BJP’s voting percentage to be 38 per cent, while forecasting a 40.4 per cent for the Congress. The same for the JD(S) is expected to be 16.4 per cent while 4.9 per cent has been predicted for other parties.

Around 30 per cent of respondents in the survey said that JD(S) might end up becoming the kingmaker after the results are declared, while 44 gave ‘maybe’ as an answer and 26 per cent were non-affirmative.

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During the survey, 38 per cent of respondents said they were satisfied with central government projects, while 41 per cent said they were ‘somewhat satisfied’ and 21 per cent said they were not satisfied.

Answering whether Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra has been beneficial to the Congress, 22 per cent said it was “very beneficial,” while 37 per cent said it was “somewhat beneficial” and 41 per cent said it was “not beneficial”.

The polls will be held in a single phase across the state on May 10 while the results will be declared on May 13.