Times Now survey: Raman Singh may beat anti-incumbency, BJP to win Chhattisgarh polls

New Delhi, Oct 8: The Raman Singh-led BJP government in Chhattisgarh may just be able to beat the anti-incumbency and win the upcoming assembly elections by bagging 47 out of the 90 seats, according to the prediction of the Times Now-Warroom Strategies survey.

In Chhattisgarh Assembly elections 2018, the BJP may win 47 seats while the Congress is likely to get 33 seats. The others may get 10 seats. It must be recalled that in the 2013 elections in Chhattisgarh, the BJP won 49 seats while the Congress won 39 seats. So, both the Congress and the BJP are likely to get fewer seats than what they got in 2013. This loss may turn to be a gain for the Mayawati-Ajit Jogi combine.

When the respondents were about their choice of Chief Minister, 55 per cent respondents named BJP's Raman Singh; 10 per cent - Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (Jogi)'s Ajit Jogi; 15 per cent - Congress' TS Singh Deo; 8 per cent - Congress' Bhupesh Baghel; 5 per cent - BJP' Saroj Pandey.

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 Chhattisgarh and considering his popularity things may change once he hits the campaign trail.