With less than ten days for Tamil Nadu to go to polls, media houses are busy publishing the results of the opinion polls. According to various opinion polls published by news channels, DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu is predicted to win a majority of seats (more than 30) in the general elections.
Puthiya Thalaimurai, a Tamil news channel, has predicted that the DMK-Congress alliance will gain over 30 seats out of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu. For its opinion polls, Puthiya Thalaimurai-APT conducted the survey across 20 constituencies across the state between March 22 and April 2. Of the respondents to the survey, 64.87 per cent were men, 34.92 per cent were women and 0.21 per cent belonged to the third gender. Of the respondents, almost 42 per cent said that they would vote for the DMK-led alliance while 27 per cent said they would vote for the alliance led by the AIADMK.
Puthiya Thalaimurai is owned by TR Pachamuthu, who is contesting as part of the DMK alliance.
Performance of PM Modi- PTTV- APT survey
For the purposes of the survey, Tamil Nadu was divided into five zones based on the geographical location of the constituencies. The survey pegged broad questions like the voter preference for a second term for PM Modi-led government at the centre and issues that could determine the outcome of the general elections. Fifty-five per cent of those who responded to the survey said that Narendra Modi's performance as the Prime Minister of the country over the past five years has been bad. While 14 per cent of the respondents said they were satisfied with his performance, 10 per cent of the respondents said the tenure was good.
Biggest factor which could influence elections
The respondents chose unemployment and farmers' issues to be the biggest factors that could decide the outcome of the general elections. While 36.11 per cent of the respondents chose unemployment factor, 25.70 per cent picked farmers'issues to be the issues that would assume precedence this poll season. The other factors included NEET, Sterlite, labourers issues, corruption and hydrocarbon. Eight per cent of respondents refused to offer a comment for this question.
Rahul Gandhi vs Narendra Modi
The survey said that more than 50 per cent of the respondents preferred Congress President Rahul Gandhi to be the next Prime Minister of the country while only 22 per cent wanted Narendra Modi back on the Prime Ministerial chair. Around 13 per cent answered that they don't know whom they preferred and 10 per cent of the respondents said that they wanted persons other than Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi to become the Prime Minister of India.
Similarly, more than 70 per cent of the survey respondents said that they wanted to see a new government at the centre and 21 per cent said that they wanted a government led by Prime Minister Modi back at the centre this time.
Other polls
Thanthi TV has given the DMK alliance a clear lead in 10 Lok Sabha constituencies. According to Thanthi TV's survey conducted in collaboration with Krish Info Media, the constituencies in which DMK has a clear lead include the ones where its senior leaders are contesting from like Nilgiris (A Raja), Thoothukudi (Kanimozhi Karunanidhi), Chennai - Central (Dayanidhi Maran), Chennai- North (Kalanithi Veerasamy), Sriperumbudur (TR Baalu) and Trichy (S Thirunavukkarasar, Congress). AIADMK has clear lead in one constituency Tiruppur as per the TV channel's opinion poll. Apart from the above, while the DMK is expected to have a slight lead over its rivals in 13 seats, the AIADMK is expected to have a slight edge over DMK in seven seats excluding Puducherry. The fight is expected to be neck and neck in eight seats including Dharmapuri and Madurai.
Times Now-VMR survey, meanwhile, has predicted 33 seats to the UPA in Tamil Nadu and six seats to the NDA.