Bengaluru, April 18: With only 10 days remaining for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka, the State’s voter preference seems to lean towards Congress, according to a pre-poll survey conducted by eedina.com. Congress is likely to get 13-18 seats of the total of 28 seats while BJP-JD(S) alliance is anticipated to secure 10 to 13 seats, as per the survey, facilitated by Kannada news portal eedina.com.
Until April last, the Eedina predictions about Karnataka assembly election results were found correct and accurate. Eedina had shared the results of its pre-election “mega survey” in the last week of April and predicted that Congress would secure between 132 to 140 seats, the BJP would get 57 to 65 and the JD(s) would stand a distant third garnering between19-25. When the results came out on May 13, Congress secured 136, BJP 65 and JD(s) mere 19.
This time too during the survey, Eedina invited citizens to volunteer and provided them with training to ask the right questions. Rather than relying on phone calls, volunteers engaged with voters directly in their homes to analyse the voters’ opinions.
The survey revealed that around 51.41 percent of respondents are aware of the Gruha Lakshmi scheme, indicating a potential increase in Congress vote share, especially with the declaration of ‘Nyaya Patra’ of Rs 1 lakh for the guarantees. 48.59 percent of the respondents were unaware of the Mahalakshmi scheme, a poll promise by Congress. 52.28 percent of the respondents are inclined to vote for Congress due to their guarantee schemes, the survey said.
Around 41.87 percent of respondents were dissatisfied with the Central government’s treatment of Karnataka in terms of funds allocation. When questioned about the major challenges faced in the past decade: 85.30 percent of respondents expressed discontent over the rising prices; 37 percent felt that employment opportunities diminished due to BJP, while 19 percent attributed it to the Congress and 36 percent of respondents believed that corruption increased in the last decade, primarily due to BJP.
Regarding Prime Minister Modi’s performance, 47 percent of respondents felt that India’s global standing has improved. Around 33% rated Modi’s work as “excellent,” and 35.8 percent considered it “satisfactory”. 45 percent of respondents believe Modi should be given a third term as Prime Minister.
In contrast, a majority of respondents, 56 percent, expressed their inclination towards voting in favour of the Congress’ guarantee schemes.
This sentiment is even stronger among women, with 59 percent indicating support for the Congress’ guarantees. Furthermore, 39.6 percent of respondents believed that State government guarantees are more beneficial, compared to 20 percent who favour Union government schemes.
