Gujarat assembly polls 2017: Photo finish for BJP, Congress says survey

A poll conducted ahead of the Gujarat elections has suggested a photo finish. The Lokniti-CSDS-ABP News predicted an equal vote share for both the BJP and Congress.

The report states that the BJP's vote share has dropped 16 percentage points in just four months. A similar survey conducted in August had said that the BJP's vote share would be at 59 per cent. This was down to 43 per cent by the last week of November.

Where the Congress is concerned it had only 29 per cent of the vote share in August. This has grown by 14 percentage points in the four months since, with the party now neck-and-neck with the BJP.

The popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has dipped 18 points from 82 per cent in August to 64 per cent in November. Rahul Gandhi's popularity has risen 8 percentage points from 40 per cent in August to 57 per cent in the latest survey.

The survey says that the dip in the BJP's lead could be attributed to anger among traders. As per the survey, in October the BJP had a lead of four points among traders; however, the latest survey shows this has been nearly reversed, with the Congress now getting 43% votes among the trading community, as opposed to the BJP at 40%.

The survey was conducted from November 23 through November 30 2017. The survey indicates that the woman votes too have shifted in favour of the Congress. A month back the women were strongly backing the BJP with 50 per cent as opposed to 39 per cent for the Congress.

Now the gap between the two parties is just two points with 44 per cent favouring the BJP and 42 per cent for the Congress.

OneIndia News