Chennai/Bengaluru, Mar 30 (IANS): An opinion poll conducted by the Edupress group has stated that the ruling BJP will return to power in Karnataka.
According to the survey that was conducted between March 25-30, the BJP is likely to win seats anywhere between 110-120 while the nearest rival Congress will win 70-80 seats.
The Janata Dal-Secular is expected to win 10 to 15 seats while others will get 4 to 9 seats.
The Edupress group, a psephology body of south India, has conducted the survey among 18,331 respondents in 50 constituencies of the state and in 183 polling booths.
Psephologist and Chairman of Edupress group, Georgekutty told IANS that as per the survey, the BJP will get 43 per cent of the total votes polled while Congress will get 37 per cent of the vote share.
The survey predicts that the former Chief Minister of Karnataka and veteran BJP leader, B.S. Yediyurappa is the most popular leader of Karnataka and 23 per cent of those surveyed supported him as the Chief Minister candidate.
Former Chief Minister and senior leader of the BJP, Jagadish Shettar is the next popular leader among those surveyed and 22 per cent of those surveyed prefer him to be the next Chief Minister, the survey predicted.
Senior leader of the Congress party and former Chief Minister, Siddharamiah came third among those surveyed with a vote share of 20 per cent while the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, D.K. Shivakumar came fourth with 19 per cent of the vote share among the surveyed people.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister and senior leader of Janata Dal-Secular, H.D. Kumaraswamy got 10 per cent of support among the surveyed people.
Interestingly, incumbent Chief Minister Basavarj Bommai could secure only 5 per cent of the vote share among those surveyed.
The survey also found that the corruption charges against the current Chief Minister, Bommai, and infighting in the ruling circle have affected the BJP but the voters were of the opinion that a change of face could bring positive results for the BJP in the elections.
The voters, however, want a continuation of the BJP government in the state.
Georgekutty told IANS said: "We will be doing the next survey in the first week of April. These are early days, BJP has a clear edge, but Congress is closely following."
"Veteran leader B.S. Yediyurappa has emerged as the most popular leader in Karnataka and former Chief Minister and BJP leader, Jagadish Shettar the cleanest politician of Karnataka," he added.