The Election Commission on Friday, 26 February announced the dates for the Assembly elections in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry.
Post EC’s announcement, the ABP C-Voter released a pre-poll survey which predicted advantage for Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, DMK in Tamil Nadu, BJP in Assam and LDF in Kerala.
WEST BENGAL
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee is all set to score a hat-trick in the Assembly election, according to the ABP C-Voter poll.
The TMC is likely to get 148-164 seats in the 294-member Assembly, and the BJP may get 92-108 seats, the opinion poll further stated.
The Congress and Left Front may get 31-39 seats, the survey predicted.
TAMIL NADU
As per the survey conducted by ABP C-Voter, the AIADMK-led NDA alliance is set for a jolt with only 58-66 seats. The DMK-led UPA alliance is expected to win 154-162 seats.
This survey comes at a time when AIADMK-BJP and DMK-Congress are in talks for seat sharing arrangement.
Actor-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam is predicted to win 2-6 seats. In all, the other parties are projected to win 58-66 seats.
In 2016, AIADMK alliance, without the BJP, swept the elections with 136 seats. The DMK was reduced to just 98 seats, with Congress winning just 8. This was also AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa and DMK supremo M Karunanidhi's last state elections.
KERALA
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) is likely to return to power in Kerala, the ABP C-Voter survey suggested. CPI(M)-led LDF may win a simple majority by winning between 83-91 seats in the 140-member assembly. The Congress-led UDF might get restricted to 47-55 seats.
The BJP, meanwhile, may win just two seats at the most.
In 2016, the UDF got 47 seats and LDF won after gaining a majority of 91 seats.
ASSAM
The ABP C-Voter pre-poll survey predicted that the BJP-led NDA alliance is set to return to power with at least 72 seats. The alliance is also expected to secure 43 percent vote share.
Meanwhile, the Congress-led UPA is predicted to win 47 seats with 41 percent vote share.
In 2016, NDA won 74 seats while Congress won 26 seats.
While elections in Assam will be held in three phases, West Bengal will have polling in 8 phases. Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will have polling in a single phase on 6 April.
The results of the elections will be announced on 2 May.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)