BENGALURU, 20 MARCH

Congress is likely to win 17 out of 28 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka, according to a pre-poll survey conducted by Kannada news portal Eedina. BJP-JD(S) alliance will grab 11 seats, and in 7 seats there will be a neck-to-neck fight.

The survey took the opinion of 52,678 people across the State between 15 February and 5 March. In terms of vote share, the survey predicts that Congress is expected to receive 43.77% of the total votes, while BJP-JD(S) alliance is projected to receive 42.35%, indicating a closely fought election. If this prediction materialises, the Congress would see an 11.89 percentage points increase in its vote share compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, while the BJP's vote share would decline.

The survey also revealed that voters are concerned about rising prices, dwindling job opportunities, increased corruption and growing income inequality over the past decade. Despite these concerns, Narendra Modi continues to enjoy significant popularity, with 45% of respondents expressing support for a third term for him as Prime Minister. However, over half of the respondents (56%) indicated that they would vote in favour of the Congress' guarantee schemes, reflecting a preference for the party's welfare initiatives.

Moreover, a considerable portion of the electorate (39.6%) believes that State government schemes are more beneficial than those of the Union government, while 20% hold the opposite view, and 26% perceive benefits from both State and Union government schemes.