AAP may have hurt BJP vote bank most: Survey

Manmeet Singh Gill
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 4
The local satta bazar is favouring Congress candidate Capt Amarinder Singh over BJP’s Arun Jaitley, as is revealed by the betting rates. The satta rate for Amarinder is Rs 10/13.50 and for Jaitley Rs 10/24.

As per the satta rules, if a punter bets Rs 10 on Amarinder’s victory, he takes home Rs 13.50, if he wins. In case Jaitley wins, he takes home Rs 24 for a bet of Rs 10.

A survey by a political science professor at Guru Nanak Dev University shows that AAP may have damaged the BJP vote bank more than that of the Congress.

The survey, conducted by Assistant Professor Dr Harpreet Mangat and her student Sukhpreet Kaur, shows that first-time voters in the constituency preferred AAP over the Congress and the BJP.

Of the total first-time voters, 36.5 per cent voted for AAP, 28.04 per cent for the Congress and 16 per cent for the BJP.

The survey shows both the SAD and the BJP losing a larger number of votes in these Lok Sabha elections than during the 2012 Assembly poll.

“The Congress seems to have lost almost one-third of the votes while the BJP may have lost a whopping 62 per cent,” Mangat said.

She said 55 per cent of the voters who had earlier voted for the Congress may have opted for AAP this time.

The remaining 35 per cent may have opted for the BJP. The remaining 10 per cent may have opted for other parties, pressed the NOTA button or not voted at all.

The BJP seems to have lost 70 per cent of its votes to AAP and 30 per cent to the Congress. Mangat said it was a small sample survey and most of the voters interviewed were from urban areas. The scenario could be different in villages.

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