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Bengaluru, Aug 20: In what should come as a pleasant news for the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government and its high command, not to mention Congress supporters, a pre-poll survey has predicted that the ruling party in the state is set for another term in office.

C fore, which has conducted one of the first pre-poll surveys in the state ahead of the Assembly elections in 2018, predicts that the Congress will be back in power with a majority.

The survey was conducted in Karnataka between July 19 and August 10, 2017. Systematic random sampling methodology was used in selecting respondents for the survey. In all, 24,679 voters were interviewed from 165 Assembly constituencies covering all the districts using a structured questionnaire. These respondents were spread across 340 urban and 550 rural locations in the state. Care was taken to ensure that different castes and communities were represented in the sample in their actual proportion, C fore said.

The survey revealed that Congress may win 120-132 seats out of the total 225, while the BJP, which has set its eyes on winning at least 150 seats, is likely to get only 60-72. The JD(S), as expected may have to be content with 24-30 seats, while the rest will probably go to others.

In terms of vote share percentage, Congress is likely to grab 43 percent of the share, with BJP second at 32 percent, JD(S) 17 percent and the rest 8 percent.

In coastal Karnataka, however, the survey predicted that it is the BJP that would have the upper hand, with a likely win of 14-16 seats, while Congress would be second with the likelihood of bagging 8-10 seats. In the last Assembly elections, Congress candidates scored a massive victories in both Dakshina Kannada and Udupi.

A majority of the Congress victories would come from Old Mysore region, while for BJP the Bombay-Karnataka region would bring the most share of wins. JD(S) too may win most of its seats in Old Mysore region, the survey states.

A gender-wise voting survey revealed that more number of women (46%) were likely to vote for Congress than men (42%). The trend would be reverse in the case of BJP (women 29% and men 33%) and the JD(S) (15% women and 18% men).

The survey also took people’s opinions on populist schemes launched by the current state government. The ’Anna Bhagya’ scheme turned out to be the most popular, with 79% of the people surveyed ranking it the number 1 scheme. Midday meal came second and ’Ksheera Bhagya’ was ranked third.

Drinking water shortage, bad roads, absence of garbage disposal and unemployment along with electricity issues were the biggest problems plaguing the constituencies according to the people.

Asked how satisfied they were with the present Congress government in the state, 53% said they were ’somewhat satisfied’ while 18% said they were ’extremely satisfied’ and 29% said they were ’not satisfied’.

In the survey, Siddaramaiah emerged as the most popular chief minister with a share of 46%, while former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa of BJP and H D Kumaraswamy of JD(S) getting 27% and 18% of the share. Again, 46% of the people surveyed said they want Siddaramaiah to lead the state again, while only 27 percent wanted Yeddyurappa to take the reins while 17 percent wanted Kumarswamy to become the next CM.

Also, 44 percent of the people surveyed felt that the current Congress government is functing better than the previous BJP government.