BJP set for comfortable UP win, alliance may bag 230-249 seats: Times Now Navbharat poll

BJP is set to comfortably win the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh making Yogi Adityanath the first CM in the state to serve two consecutive terms since 1985, an opinion poll done for Times Now Navbharat by VETO has projected. The poll predicts 230-249 seats for the BJP-led alliance in the 403-member house.

The Samajwadi Party-led alliance is projected to finish well behind with between 137 and 152 seats while the BSP and Congress are seen as practically out of the race. The BSP is projected to win 9-14 seats, its lowest tally in over three decades, and the Congress to finish in single digits as it did in 2017.

The BJP alliances projected vote share of 38.6% is nearly three percentage points lower than in 2017 while the SP alliance’s 34.4% would be a huge improvement over the previous assembly polls. The two leading parties in the fray seem to be gaining votes at the expense of the BSP, which is projected to go down from 22.2% in 2017 to just 14.1%, if the survey turns out right.

The Yogi government’s law and order pitch was seen as its strongest point by the respondents and the Kashi and Mathura issues too were perceived as working in favour of the BJP.

On the flip side, the Lakhimpur Kheri incident and the second wave of Covid were seen as having dented the BJP government’s image.

The opinion poll was done between December 16 and 30, with a sample size of 21,480.