Gathbandhan ahead in UP, NDA gains in Bihar: Survey

The SP-BSP-RLD gathbandhan (alliance) is likely to get a large chunk of Lok Sabha seats at the cost of the BJP in the coming Lok Sabha elections, but the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is far ahead of the RJD-led alliance in Bihar, a survey has shown.

As per the ABP-Nielsen survey released on Thursday, the gathbandhan of Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) is set to get 42 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ally Apna Dal (AD) are likely to get 36 seats.

The Congress, which is out of the gathbandhan and fighting it alone in Uttar Pradesh, is likely to get just two seats.

In the 2014 general elections, the BJP-AD had won 73 seats, SP got 5 while 2 seats were won by the Congress.

However, in terms of vote percentage, the BJP-AD is one notch above the gathbandhan with 43 per cent of votes. The Congress is likely to slightly improve its percentage of votes from 7.8 per cent in 2014 to 9 per cent in the present elections, the survey showed.

The opinion poll found that voters in Uttar Pradesh found the performance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as "good". However, his rating was "average" among the Muslim respondents.

The performance of the NDA government has also been rated as "good" with a mean score of 3.73. Corruption and unemployment are the top two important issues in the state.

Maintaining law and order emerged as the top reason to vote for a party in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress seems to be preferred for communal harmony, price control, welfare schemes and job reservation for backwards classes, said the survey which covered over 20,000 respondents between March 16 and March 24.

In Bihar, the NDA consisting of BJP, Janata Dal United (JD-U) and Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) is likely to win 34 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats with 52 per cent of votes.

The gathbandhan comprising Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) and Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) is projected to get just six seats with 35 per cent of votes.

In the survey of 10,000 respondents done between March 17 and March 26, the performance of Prime Minister Modi has been rated as "good". The scores are higher among men and urban respondents.

The performance of the NDA government has also been rated as "good" with a mean score of 3.92. The score is higher among urban respondents. The performance of the Nitish Kumar-led state government has also been rated as "above average".

Corruption and unemployment are the top two important issues facing the people. The top problems are more pronounced among women and rural respondents.

The opinion is divided on Shatrughan Sinha with 38 per cent of the respondents saying he has done the right thing by leaving the BJP and joing the Congress, while 39 per cent think differently.

--IANS

mak/arm