BJP will score impressive LS win in TN’

An opinion poll by a popular Tamil weekly has found that the BJP-led alliance would score impressive win in Tamil Nadu in the coming Lok Sabha elections. A survey held by Junior Vikatan, a popular Tamil weekly (circulation: more than 2 lakh) published by the House of Vikatan, says that 40.88 per cent of people it interviewed said that they would vote for the BJP-led alliance in Tamil Nadu.

A team of 90 reporters assisted by student reporters hired from journalism schools fanned out to all the 39 Lok Sabha constituencies in the State and interviewed 9,174 people which included 3,402 women. The questionnaire featuring the names and addresses of the participants were analysed by the in-house election specialists of Junior Vikatan including  group editor R Kannan.

While 3,750 persons preferred the BJP-led alliance (40.88 per cent), 2,083 persons (22.7 per cent) made it known that they preferred the AIADMK-led alliance. The DMK front was endorsed by 1997 persons which comes to 21.7 per cent. Only 937 people (10.2 per cent) said they would vote for the Congress.

Interestingly, BJP’s Narendra Modi was voted as the next Prime Minister of the country by 4,448 persons  (48.49 per cent). While the name of Rahul Gandhi was  endorsed by 1,434 persons (15.63per cent), Jayalalithaa, the AIADMK leader, got the backing of 1144 persons (12.47 per cent). Manmohan Singh finished a poor fifth with just 662 persons voting for him.      

The survey threw out some interesting findings, the most important being how the Tamil Nadu people view the proposed BJP-led alliance which include the PMK, the DMDK and the MDMK. A majority of the participants (3782, 41.23 per cent) termed the alliance as contradictory in nature. Only 28.9 per cent (2,586) felt it would be strong in nature while 2,806 (30.5 per cent) termed it as an effective alliance against the Congress.

In what could be a snub to DMK leader M Karunanidhi, the participants in the opinion poll described DMK’s declaration that it would not align with the Congress as opportunism. A record number of 4,829 participants (52.6 per cent) described Karunanidhi’s declaration that the DMK would not align with the Congress as opportunism while 2880 people termed it as the right move. The poll has brought   more worries for the Karunanidhi family. In stark contrast to the past, 35.56 per cemt (3262 persons) said the DMK is isolated in this election. Though 31.5 per cent (2892 persons) did not agree with this view, the next Lok Sabha election could turn out to be the most crucial for the DMK.

Even as discussions are on for forging an alliance between the DMK and the DMDK of the actor-turned politician Vijayakant, 3,779 persons (41.19 per cent) described the move as opportunistic and 3,401 (37.08 per cent) forecasting that people would not accept such an alliance.

P Thiruma Velan, editor, Junior Vikatan, said the poll was held as professionally as any other opinion poll. “In an opinion poll held by us in January 2013 to find out the acceptability of Narendra Modi as the country’s Prime Minister, 58 per cent participants voted for him. This was much before the BJP announced him as the prime ministerial candidate,” Velan told The Pioneer.

Junior Vikatan is a political and social weekly brought out by Vikatan Group, the publishers of the 87-year-old Ananda Vikatan (a household name in Tamil Nadu) weekly.

Responses