NEW DELHI, 29 September 2004 — The Congress-NCP alliance is ahead of the BJP-Shiv Sena combine in the second opinion poll conducted by the prominent Alpha Marathi Channel for the forthcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections. The Congress-NCP alliance is likely to get a comfortable majority in the elections, according to the poll.
Most respondents found Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde as the best person to lead the state. Gopinath Munde and Udhav Thakre were far behind in the race for the post, the survey found.
The Congress-NCP alliance is likely to get 166 seats, while the BJP-Shiv Sena combine would get only about 100 seats, the poll said. Development, problems of farmers and unemployment are the main issues in the election. The Savarkar issue raised by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the tricolor issue of Uma Bharati seem to have lost their sheen. The survey, conducted in one constituency of each of the 36 districts, questioned 3,476 voters. Of those questioned, 86.6 percent termed development as the most important issue.
Criminalization of politics no longer dominates the minds of the people, as only 46.35 percent of the voters found it to be an issue. Only 26.6 percent voters felt a separate Vidharbha was crucial.
The issues directly affecting the people include free power to farmers, loan waivers for farmers, non-fulfillment of promises by politicians and job reservation in the private sector. Half the respondents thought the same alliance or party should rule both in Delhi and Maharashtra.
When asked about their choice of government, about 38.1 percent favored the Congress-NCP-led Democratic Front alliance, while 25.5 percent voted for the Shiv Sena-BJP combine that ruled the state in 1995-99. Over 36 percent were undecided.
The conclusion of the survey: The Cong-NCP alliance, with 40.8 percent of vote share, is likely to win around 166 seats with a margin for increase or decrease of three seats. It would be followed by the BJP-SS alliance, with 26.4 percent of the vote share. They would get 100 seats — plus or minus two seats. Other parties including independents would get the rest of the 22 seats.
Meanwhile, cracking the whip on rebels, Congress in Maharashtra expelled five prominent party workers, including Madan Bhosle, son of former MPCC chief Prataprao Bhosle, for defying party directive and filing nomination papers as independents for the election. “We are still holding discussions with Congress workers who are left in the fray. We are trying to persuade them to withdraw from the contest. If things don’t work by Oct. 1, we will take action against them,” the party’s official in charge of Maharashtra, Margaret Alva, told reporters here.
Congress has accused the BJP and the Sangh Parivar of resorting to “their old tactics to create social tension” ahead of elections. The party said it would approach the Election Commission against the BJP’s efforts to divide society on communal lines.
Leaflets telling Hindus to protect themselves against Muslims have surfaced in Bombay. The chief minister’s son-in-law, Raj Shroff — the candidate in Malabar Hills — has lodged a complaint with the state chief election officer that sitting BJP MLA Mangal Prabhat Lodha’s men had been distributing these pamphlets.
