Rajasthan election: Times Now-CNX pre-poll survey predicts win for Congress

The Indian National Congress is likely to come to power in Rajasthan with a comfortable majority after the state assembly elections to be held in December, a Times Now-CNX pre-poll survey has predicted.

The opinion survey predicts 110-120 seats for the Congress in a bipolar contest to the 200 Assembly seats, 70-80 seats for the ruling BJP, 1-3 seats for Mayawati's BSP 1-3 seats, and 7 for the rest, including Jat leader Hanuman Beniwal's Rashtriya Loktantrik Party and Ghanshyam Tiwari‘s Bharat Vahini Party (BVP).

In the previous elections in 2013, BJP had coasted to power with 163 seats leaving the Congress a distant second with 21. Rajasthan has been alternatingly voting the two parties to power over the last 25 years.

The Times Now-CNX pre-poll survey predicted a 43.5 vote share for the Congress with an upswing of 10.4% from last time and 40.37 for BJP with s loss of 4,8%.

When asked whom they would like to see as their next chief minister , 31.75% chose young Congress leader Sachin Pilot with Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje a close second. Only half that number chose veteran Ashok Gehlot, though more people thought he had fared better than Raje when he was CM.

Survey results showed serious anti-incumbency against Raje, with 48% rating her performance as poor. A large number of people are not happy over her government's performance in healthcare, education and transportation sectors, and rising unemployment could be a major issue at the polls.

More than 65% participants expressed dissatisfaction over how her government handled the Padmavati film controversy, while 55.7% were unhappy at the encounter killing of Anandpal Singh, the gangster who had a Robin Hood image among the poor.

Despite the disappointment with Raje's government, a majority of respondents expressed support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and were happy with his government's performance.

Rajasthan goes to poll in a single phase on December 7 and the results will be declared on December 11.

The survey expected the Congress to lead the BJP in all the four regions - Harouti, Marwad, Mewar and Shekawati.

Agency CNX Media said it used its exclusive 'Super 30' methodology, interviewing 8040 people across randomly selected 67 constituencies.

(With inputs from TIMES NOW)