Times Now survey predicts win for BJP in Madhya Pradesh, Congress to do better than 2013

New Delhi, Oct 8: The Times Now-Warroom Strategies survey has predicted a win for the BJP in the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections 2018, but the party will get fewer seats than what it got in 2013. According to the poll, the BJP may win 142 out of the 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh while the Congress may get 77 seats. The others may win 11 seats.

In the 2013 assembly elections, the BJP had registered a landslide win by bagging 166 out of the 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh while Congress won 57. If the survey predictions come true than the BJP would be getting 23 seats less than the last time while Congress will gain 20 seats.

In terms of the vote share, BJP is likely to get 44 percent in 2018 while Congress may get 35 percent.

When the respondents were asked about their preferred choice of Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan emerged the frontrunner with 61 percent preferring him. Jyotiraditya Scindia was the choice of 17 per cent respondents followed by Digvijaya Singh (5 percent) and Kamal Nath (6 percent).

The upcoming elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram are being seen as the semi-finals before the Lok Sabha elections 2019. It, however, remains to be seen if the pattern that emerges in state elections would have a bearing on General Elections or not. In the assembly elections, the voters cast their ballot based on the local issues while for General Elections national issues are expected to matter more.

Another thing is that Prime Minister Modi has not started campaigning in Rajasthan and considering his popularity things may change once he hit the campaign trail.

The Election Commission (EC) on October 6 announced the schedule for Assembly elections in five states -- Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram.

Polling will be held in Rajasthan and Telangana on December 7, and in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram on November 28.