Pre-poll survey predicts victory for Congress in Karnataka elections

A pre-poll survey has shown Congress party to be ahead in the race to form the next Government in Karnataka, leaving the BJP and JD (S) way behind.

According to a pre-poll survey carried out by Centre for Developing Studies for CNN-IBN and Deccan Herald, the Congress party has been projected to win 114 seats in the 224-member assembly, notching up a “slender, but clear majority” in the elections scheduled to take place in May.

The opinion poll has predicted a major setback to the BJP, which is hoping to capture power in the state, by projecting 60 seats to the party, a decline of 19 seats from the 79 the saffron party won during the 2004 assembly polls.

Similiarly, the Janata Dal (S) led by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda is shown to be winning only 37 seats, 21 short of its tally during the 2004 elections.

The pre-poll survey asked 5,124 registered voters across the state to use a dummy “secret” ballot to indicate their voting preference if “elections were to take place tomorrow”.

A count of the dummy votes had apparently shown that if the elections were held in the week before nominations, the Congress would have secured 39 per cent of the popular votes, leaving the BJP and JD (S) way behind at 28 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

With just 2 per cent of the popular vote, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has not yet emerged as a significant player in Karnataka. The JD (U) was placed even lower, struggling to register its presence.

Even though the Congress is leading the race as the most popular political party, the most favoured choice of the voters as the next Chief Minister went to BJP’s B S Yeddyurappa, who secured 27 per cent of the votes.

Yeddyurappa was closely followed by JD (S) leader and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who was preferred by 22 per cent of the voters. Congress leader and former Chief Minister S M Krishna came third with 16 per cent of votes.

However, the Karnataka unit of the BJP has rejected the pre-poll survey as “off the mark and totally away from reality”.

Speaking to reporters in Bangalore yesterday, former Federal Minister and BJP leader Ananthakumar said asserted the BJP will form a majority on its own in the next elections and form a Government on its own.

“Any survey should be realistic and reflect ground realities”, he said claiming that the surveying agency did not have a good track record of making accurate pre-poll predictions.

BJP’s Karnataka unit President D V Sadananda Gowda also rejected the survey report and termed it as “premature conclusion”.