Congress jittery over surveys showing gains for BJP, AAP

Party worried about anti-incumbency and waning popularity of Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit, but stops short of calling ban on surveys

Faced with three term anti-incumbency and waning popularity of chief minister Sheila Dikshit, the Congress party is clearly jittery at the spate of opinion polls predicting its declining fortunes in the Delhi Assembly polls. What has flustered the party further is the massive gains being projected by newbie party Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). “These surveys mould public opinion. How can internal surveys of parties be made public,” questioned Congress spokesperson Sandeep Dikshit. Opposition BJP according to most surveys would better its performance this time around. However the Congress stopped short of calling for a ban on poll surveys.

The AAP party in its survey released last week claimed that the first time party would bag 33 seats in the 70-member Assembly. AAP was projected to get vote share of 32 per cent, followed by Congress with 28 per cent and BJP with 24 per cent vote share.

While the Congress would like to dismiss the AAP survey as a case of “no party ever projects that it is losing”, what has rattled the grand old party is the fact that most surveys released till date have shown AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal as the most popular choice for chief minister.

Other surveys have predicted a hung assembly with BJP bagging most seats way above the Congress. The ABP – Nielsen survey projected AAP getting18 seats in the 70-member Assembly.

Sandeep Dikshit expressed “doubts about the veracity of these surveys” as there was wide variation between the results of several surveys. “Usually psephology is an exact science but obviously the methodology is faulty here. By publicising a party’s own internal survey- it is surely an attempt to mould public opinion in the party’s favour.”

Meanwhile the fissures within the Opposition BJP over the choice of chief ministerial candidate with the tug of war between Vijay Goel and Harshvardhan out in the open- has come as huge relief to the Congress camp. With projections of BJP fortunes rising in comparison to the Congress, any news of the BJP camp in disarray is being welcomes by Congress leaders.

Significantly, the Election Commission of India has proposed to the Centre that there should be a law to ban opinion polls during elections. Exit polls are currently banned 48 hours prior to voting on the grounds that they influence voters and confuse them.