BJP set to win Gujarat but with reduced vote share: Survey

NEW DELHI: A survey conducted by ABP-CSDS ahead of Gujarat assembly polls has projected that the BJP will win 113-121 seats while the Congress will get 58-64 seats.

However, according to the second round of the poll conducted in the last week of October, BJP's seat share is expected to decline sharply from the prediction made in August.

The second round of the poll conducted by ABP News-Lokniti-CSDS in the state said the BJP would secure 47 per cent of the votes, down from 59 per cent in August, and the Congress would getting 41 per cent votes, a gain of 12 per cent.

In the first round of its pre-election poll conducted in the first half of August, the BJP was ahead of the Congress by 30 per cent in terms of people's voting preference. However, the advantage has come down to 6 per cent.

The survey found much of the Congress recovery taking place in two regions — Saurashtra-Kutch and North Gujarat.

In Saurashtra, the Congress and the BJP were found to be neck and neck at 42 per cent votes each and in North Gujarat, the Congress was ahead of the BJP by 7 per cent. Both these regions together account for 107 seats, which is well over half the seats in the 182-member Gujarat assembly.

Congress seems to be in trouble in its traditional stronghold of Central Gujarat. The poll found the party to be trailing the BJP in this region by 16 per cent. South Gujarat too seems to be swinging the BJP way for now. The survey found the BJP to be securing 51 per cent of the votes here compared to the Congress's 33 per cent.