Asianet News Pre-Poll Survey: AAP ahead on Vijay Rupani's Rajkot West seat
The survey noted that 43 per cent of voters in Rajkot West have rated the performance of the sitting MLA, Vijay Rupani, as average, while another 32 per cent outrightly termed it as bad. Overall, 86 per cent of the voters are unhappy with Rupani's work in the constituency, the survey noted
FollowThe Bharatiya Janata Party may end up sweeping the forthcoming assembly elections in Gujarat as per the survey conducted by Asianet News in the state recently, but they face an embarrassment in their stronghold of Rajkot West.
Also Read: Gujarat Election 2022: Caste dynamics could be the decider, reveals Asianet News survey
The Asianet News pre-poll survey shows that the Rajkot West seat in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, where BJP has won time and again, could face a stiff fight from the Aam Aadmi Party. At the moment, Arvind Kejriwal's party -- which had failed to win even one seat in the 2017 assembly elections -- is seen to be ahead in Rajkot West and Rajkot Rural segments. The BJP continues to hold its sway over Rajkot East and Rajkot South. What's embarrassing is the fact that former chief minister Vijay Rupani is the sitting MLA from Rajkot West.
To note, Rajkot has been a BJP stronghold for over four decades. In fact, in 2022, BJP MLA Vajubhai Vala vacated the seat to enable then Chief Minister Narendra Modi to contest and enter the state assembly.
The survey noted that 43 per cent of voters in Rajkot West rated the performance of the sitting MLA, Vijay Rupani, as average, while another 32 per cent outrightly termed it as bad. Overall, 86 per cent of the voters are unhappy with Rupani's work in the constituency, the survey noted.
Caste-wise breakup
The Asianet News pre-poll survey notes that the BJP is favoured by the Upper Caste Hindu voters and the Jain/Bania communities. Other communities supporting the BJP include the Kshatriya and Koli communities.
Also Read: Asianet News survey predicts BJP's return to power in Gujarat; AAP to eat into Congress vote share
As for the AAP, the party is seen to be preferred by Muslims and the Scheduled Caste communities. The Congress, which is projected to be pushed to third place in the Rajkot West contest, is expected to see its support base erode significantly across all sections of society.
Rajkot West Vote Share Projection
The Asianet News pre-poll survey said the AAP is expected to gain 38 per cent of the votes in Rajkot West, followed by 35 per cent for the BJP, 26 per cent for the Congress and the rest to be shared among others.
A closer examination of the voter sentiment reveals that the AAP is gaining ground as far as women voters are concerned, with at least 39 per cent of them now being seen as favouring Kejriwal's party, followed by 36 per cent for the BJP. Even among male voters, the AAP (37 per cent) is ahead of the BJP (34 per cent).
Among the main reasons why the BJP seems to be trailing the AAP in Rajkot West include bad roads (24 per cent) and high prices of essential commodities (16 per cent). Besides these, the other major concerns for the people of Rajkot West are unemployment (15 per cent), law and Order (10 per cent), electricity shortage (9 per cent), water shortage (7 per cent), garbage disposal problem (6 per cent), poor transport facilities (5 per cent), lack of loan facilities (3 per cent) and poor education facilities (2 per cent) among others (3 per cent).
The BJP is yet to announce the candidate list for the Gujarat assembly election. Interestingly, the party is contemplating giving tickets to new faces on many assembly seats. Given the Asianet News survey projection, Rajkot West could well be one among them.
