Asianet News-Cfore survey: AIADMK-AINRC-BJP to sweep Puducherry election

The Asianet News Cfore pre-poll survey predicts that the three-party alliance of the AIADMK, BJP and former Chief Minister N Rangaswamy's All India NR Congress will sweep the elections with an absolute majority.

Barely as the drama, chaos and turbulence that rocked the Congress party in the aftermath of its government's downfall in Puducherry had settled, here comes yet another jolt for the Grand Old Party.
 

The Asianet News Cfore survey has revealed that the Congress will face a rout in the April 6 election in the Union Territory.
 

The survey, which considered the views of 5077 voters spread across all 30 constituencies, was done between March 5 and 12 using systematic random sampling methodology.
 

The Asianet News Cfore pre-poll survey predicts that the three party alliance of the AIADMK, BJP and former Chief Minister N Rangaswamy's All India NR Congress will sweep the elections with absolute majority.

The survey shows that the AIADMK-AINRC-BJP alliance could garner up to 23-27 seats out of the total 30 in the assembly. The pre-election opinion poll also reveals the major shift in voter base in favour of the AIADMK-BJP-AINRC combine.
 

The alliance combine is expected to corner over 52 per cent of the vote share. to recall, in 2016, these parties had contested on their own.
 

In the 2016 assembly election, the DMK-Congress had over 39 per cent vote share. This time, however, that tally could come down to 36 per cent.  A total of 52 per cent of the respondents believed that the AIADMK-BJP-AINRC will win the April 6 election while 33 per cent of the people endorsed the DMK-CONG alliance.

The Asianet News Cfore survey threw up more interesting facts. For example, when asked about their assessment of the last 5 years of Congress-DMK government, 44 per cent of the respondents were unhappy with their performance while 34 per cent felt the government was average and 22 per cent believed that the administration was good.
 

The public opinion was somewhat divided when asked if PM Modi-led central government had supported Puducherry whenever required. While 39 per cent of people agreed that the Centre had backed Puducherry, another 34% disagreed with the same.
 

When asked about the issues that affected people in the Union Territory the most, 22 per cent of respondents said they had no access to ration shops while another 20 per cent pointed towards open sewer lines. Another 17 per cent respondents blamed bad roads, 13 per cent raised the unemployment issue while 10 per cent lamented the lack of drinking water. 

At least 45 per cent of people felt that the Narendra Modi-led BJP will govern Puducherry better than the DMK-Congress alliance. Another 37% disagreed with the same. A crucial factor that could benefit former chief minister N Rangaswamy in the forthcoming elections is an aspect that the Asianet News CFore poll has revealed. 
 

A whopping 42 per cent of the respondents said that a CM candidate's image played a crucial factor in influencing their voting decision. Another 22 per cent said they could vote based on party ideology while 15 per cent could vote based on MLA's previous performance. Only 4 per cent of the respondents said they could vote on caste lines.