THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan has emerged as the popular choice for chief minister, according to a pre-poll survey. While Satheesan garnered 25.2% support, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is close behind with 21.5%, as per a survey conducted by Vote Vibe, a public opinion platform. Going by the survey, CPM’s K K Shailaja has 15.8% support while BJP state chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar has 10%, closely followed by Shashi Tharoor with 9.2%.
The survey also sheds light on the growth of the saffron front in the state. Noticeably about 27.7% of the respondents felt that the LDF would bear the brunt of BJP’s growth in the state, while 18.7 % opined that it would be damaging for the UDF.
The UDF allegation of a tacit alliance between the CPM and the BJP had an equal share of both backers and dissenters. While 33.6% agreed to the UDF allegation, 32.3% disagreed. Similarly the allegation over IUML likely to act as a backseat driver if the UDF comes to power, got traction from 35.1% voters, while 33.3% opposed the same.
Even though the Opposition leader garnered decent support as the chief ministerial candidate, the fight between the two fronts remains a close contest. While 35.8% rated the overall performance of the state government as positive, about 44.3% responded negatively.
Notably, 44.5% are satisfied with the state government’s welfare schemes and social security programmes. Interestingly almost 44.2% of the respondents opined corruption allegations against the LDF government to be true.
Of the issues faced by people, unemployment came up as the biggest one with 23.2% pointing it out, followed by price rise at 18.8% and alcoholism and drug abuse at 11.4%. A detailed look at the demographic aspects of the survey indicates a tightrope finish.
As per the findings, while UDF leads on leadership freshness and community coalition, LDF retains strength in welfare, female voters and CPM organisational machinery.
The survey was carried out with a sample size of 2615 respondents, with 52% males and 48% females. The respondents were chosen from different social groups like General, SC, ST, OBC, different religions and various age groups starting from 18-24 to above 55. The margin of error has been calculated as 3 per cent.