Congress to bag 110-122 seats, BJP to win only 73-85

Bengaluru: The ABP C-Voter final pre-poll survey report released today has projected Congress to win anywhere between 110 to 122 seats and will emerge as the largest single party with a simple majority. BJP its arch-rival has been pegged at 73-85 seats followed by Janata Dal (Secular) at 21-29 seats in the elections to the state assembly for which the polling will take place on 10 May (Wednesday).

The much-hyped issue of ‘ban of Bajrang Dal’ as purported by the BJP has been nullified as the seat projection by the survey team of ABP C-Voter indicates there would not be any effect of the narratives created by the BJP over the Bajrang Dal issue. Another narrative which comes into the open is that “is BJP not going to benefit from the high profile campaigning by its top leaders?”.

The survey has put highest seats in the Coastal region for the BJP understandably, with the levels of polarisation. The report states that the BJP will get anywhere from 13-17 seats out of a total of 21 seats, followed by Congress at 4-8 seats and JDS as expected projected with no seats won.

In the Central Karnataka, the Congrss will get a maximum number of seats at 20-24 seats followed by the BJP with 10-12 seats out of 35 seats in this region. The JDS will also do badly here with just 0-2 seats.

In Old Mysore zone that has 55 seats where Congress expected to pip JDS with 24-28 seats while JDS may get between 19-24 seats, BJP will be in tghe third places here with just 4-8 seats. It could be recalled here that the BJP’s top bosses Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda had put their weight behind their candidates here with big sops. The Congress however had worked silently here and had taken on the JDS bandwagon head on in this zone.

The greater Bangalore at a total of 32 seats the Congress might just edge pass the BJP by not more than 2 seats. Here the survey team has projected the Congress to win 14-18 seats while the BJP may win 12-16 seats. This zone is one of the most keenly contested battleground. JDS has been pegged at 1-4 seats. The greater Bangalore is a zone fully urban and the competition is fierce.

The largest chunk of seats for the Congress and BJP is expected to come from the Mumbai Karnataka zone. This zone has a total of 50 seats out of which the Congress may get 24-28 seats followed by the BJP at 22-26 seats and JDS might just be satisfied with 1 seat at the maximum. This is the zone where the Congress party peformed its master stroke of onboarding former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar a big Lingayat leader which changed the tenor of this zone towards Congress.

The Hyderabad Karnataka which is propelled by the AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge will get the largest lead in number of seats against the BJP. The survey findings state that the Congress may get 18-22 seats against the BJP’s 6-10 seats followed by JDS from 0-2 seats. Even in the vote percentage the survey has put Congress ahead of its archrival BJP. The Congress is expected to get 40 per cent vote share followed by the BJP at 36 per cent and

JDS at 16 per cent.