BJP Ahead, Congress on Slide, says Survey

The ruling UPA is set for a crushing defeat and the saffron party may return to power after nine years of struggle. If the Lok Sabha polls were held now, the Congress-led UPA will get 136 seats and the main opposition NDA will win 206, according to a survey conducted by ABP News-Nielsen.

Giving a big thumbs up to the BJP, majority of the respondents of the survey are not in mood to see the Congress in power for a number of reasons. However, neither UPA nor NDA will get the magic numbers in the Lok Sabha election if were held today.

Congress, which alone had won 209 in the 2009 elections, will manage to get 136 seats. Left parties will get 34 seats in the polls. According to the survey, UPA will get 26% of votes, and NDA 27%. Other parties will be voted the most. Around 41% votes will go in favour of other parties, while Left will get only 6% votes.

The survey said that around 31% respondents intend to vote for the BJP, while 20% want to bring Congress back to power.

If the polls were to take place today, it would be Narendra Modi vs Rahul Gandhi. Once again, Saffron party’s poster boy Narendra Modi has turned out to be the most preferred Prime Ministerial candidate in the country. While 36 % have voted for Modi, 13 % votes went for Rahul Gandhi, who is growing more powerful in the party. However, 12% people chose Manmohan Singh to be the next PM.

Maximum respondents do not intend to see Dr Singh as the PM. While 10% people opine that he has performed ‘very good’ during his tenure, he was rated ‘good’ by 27% respondents. 30% feel that he is an ‘average PM’, 18% ranked him ‘poor’, and 9% feel that his performance as the PM ‘very poor’.