Pre-poll survey shows BJP-led alliance losing in Bihar

The RJD, Janata Dal-U and Congress alliance in Bihar is expected to win 116 to 132 seats out of the total 243 seats in the assembly elections slated to be held in five phases between October 12 and November 5, a pre-poll said on Wednesday.

The BJP-led combine, including Lok Janshakti Party and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, is projected to capture 94 to 110 seats, India TV-CVoter poll showed.

The projections are based on a methodology based on random stratified sample of 10,638 interviews covering all 243 segments in Bihar during the last week of August and the first week of September.

"Margin of error is plus/minus 3 percent at state level and plus/minus 5 percent at regional level," C-Voter said.

In the 2010 Bihar assembly polls, the then BJP-JD-U alliance had won 206 seats, while Lalu Prasad's RJD-led alliance with Paswan won only 25 seats.

On the question as to who would be the best chief minister, a whopping 53 percent respondents favoured incumbent Nitish Kumar, while only 18 percent preferred BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi and only 5 percent each preferred Lalu Prasad and BJP's Shatrughan Sinha.

Vote percentage wise, the Lalu-Nitish-Congress combine is projected to win 43 percent votes, the BJP-led combine is projected to win 40 percent votes and 17 percent votes going to others.

Fifty six percent respondents said the present elections will be a vote for change.

On a question on who was responsible for poor condition of the state, 52 percent held the present state government responsible while 35 percent blamed the Centre.