Mumbai Congress rejects opinion poll on civic election

Mumbai, Jan 30 (UNI) Mumbai Congress today rejected the opinion poll conducted by a private television channel and Marathi newspaper which gave Shiv Sena-BJP 95-120 seats in the civic elections scheduled for February one.

In a statement here, city unit chief Gurudas Kamat said he was shocked to note that the opinion poll has been conducted on an incorrect base and the party did not agree with the conclusions.

He also highlighted the fact that the editor of the paper which was part of the opinion poll, Mr Kumar Ketkar himself stated that he did not agree with the outcome of the opinion poll on the channel because people who are not voters and those who do not vote also give their opinions in such polls.

Mr Kamat said that the poll was conducted 15 days ago and hence was not in tune in the present scenario. ''The middle Vaitarna project to ensure drinking water to the city was gathering dust in the Municipal corporation and it was because of the Mumbai congress efforts that the project is now underway. Now, Central government is also providing funds for the Rs 1600 crore project,''he added.

The opinion poll focusses on Shiv Sena's present state, the leadership qualities of Uddhav and Raj Thackeray and their popularity among the people, the relevance of Bal Thackeray in Maharashtra politics. ''How can one judge the state of mind of Mumbai's voters based on such questions,'' he asked.

Mr Kamat said the Congress workers during the campaign were urging voters to exercise their franchise and the confidence of the party to win the civic body elections arises because the electorate are enthusiastic to cast their votes.

UNI